Save My Heart
by Fira Love
Summary: Raven's original story. College AU for the KH Gang. Raven is taken in by Sora and the gang, but some people don't agree with Raven joining the group, others are too happy. What happens when hearts start to coming together in ways no one saw coming? CanonxOC Reviews Please.
1. Chapter 1

Darkness had once fallen over Destiny Islands, but that had passed, during that time, no one noticed the Darkness took someone with it, someone to protect its heartless from the keyblades. No one would have thought the cheeriest child of the islands would be chosen for this duty. But that was a few years ago, before the darkness fell.

Now a young adult man with brown spiky hair looked around his hometown. Everything was peaceful until suddenly a pureblood heartless appeared in front of him, floating somehow. Then slowly pale arms formed and a girl, his age, dressed in black pants and shirt, with a red skirt-like cloth over her pants, and black boots, was in front of him. Her eyes were red and she had long black hair with red streaks in it. He stepped back and he noticed on her arm was a band with the heartless symbol on it.

"Who are you?" he asked looking at her with his blue eyes.

"You have harmed too many of the heartless, it is time you paid." she said with a dark, monotone voice as she glared at him with hate.

"What ar-" he didn't get to finish since a metal fan whizzed past his head, narrowly missing his neck. "Hey, what was that for?" the fan suddenly came up behind him and returned to her hand, while her other hand held the heartless close to her chest.

"I said you are done with harming the heartless, I will keep them safe, that is my duty." she snapped swinging at him, only for him to trip her and hold a giant key to her neck.

"That's enough, I have no idea what's wrong with you but I've done nothing to you to be attacked like this." he said. "Now, I'm Sora, who are you?"

"You have no right to know my name." she hissed and kicked his knees, knocking him over and sunk into the shadows and out of his sight.

"Hey, where did you go?" he asked looking around only he could not find her anywhere he looked.

With the girl gone, Sora went home to his dorm room. He found his silver-haired friend still up studying for the exam he had in the morning.

"Anything happen tonight?" He asked not looking up from his text book.

"Huh, yeah some girl attacked me, claiming she protected the heartless." Sora replied.

His friend dropped his pencil and looked at him like he was crazy. "You can't be serious, I never heard of a girl who defines the heartless. And I would know." he said.

"Riku, I'm serious. She attacked me while she was hugging a heartless. Who hugs a heartless?" Sora retorted at his friend.

"Okay, that is something to think about." Riku replied with a yawn. "You should get some sleep or you're gonna sleep through classes again."

Sora chuckled some rubbing his head, "Yeah, you've got a point but I have that girl on my mind. She kinda seemed familiar look wise."

"What do you mean?" Riku asked going back to his studying.

"Well, she looked like someone we knew, but I can't place a name for some reason. But I guess sleep is the best idea." Sora said before going to bed.

XXXXXXXXXXx

At lunch Sora meet up with his other friends, he was heading to their table, only to run into a girl knocking her down. He starting apologizing and helping her up, only she pulled away from him. He surprised she looked like the girl from the other night only she had dark brown eyes and no red streaks in her hair. "Don't touch me." was all she said before swiftly moving away. He watched her for a moment, but looked back at his friends for a second then at her only to find her gone. He was confused for a moment but joined them.

"Sora, what happened? Running over strange girls now, are we?" a girl with light blue hair joked.

"No, I just... never mind, Aqua." he said shaking his head.

"What's wrong with you? You've been all zoney on us." a boy with blonde hair said.

"Well, I need to know have any of you heard of a Heartless Guardian?" Sora asked.

His friends gave him a bunch of 'no' and 'that's not possible' making him sigh. He rubbed his forehead and explained his story. He noticed his raven haired friend seemed to know something and looked at him. "So Vanitas, what do you know?"

He looked at Sora with cold amber eyes. "Well, I know that there is a slight chance of it happening but I highly doubt it since if there was one, I'm sure more heartless would be attacking everywhere." he said.

"Well, how do you know that she leads them?" Aqua asked. "She could simply just guard them from those with keyblades, like us."

A man with short brown hair looked at Aqua, "If that is true, why haven't any of us seen her before? Why is she only now coming out to speak up?"

"Terra makes a good point." another blond haired boy said. "We all should have seen her sooner than this."

"But Ven, maybe there is a reason for her late appearance." the other blond boy said.

"Or maybe because we were all over, she had a hard time moving about in time to stop us, Roxas." a blond haired girl said as she drew a picture.

"Whatcha drawing, Namine?" Roxas asked looking over her shoulder. "Oh, cool who is she?"

The picture was of a girl with cold red eyes, long black hair with red streaks, and hugging a heartless. "I'm not sure but she was in my dream." Namine replied pausing her drawing to fix her hair so it fell over her shoulder again. "Sora, did the girl look like this?" she held the drawing so Sora could see.

"YES! THAT'S HER!" he shouted getting everyone around them to look at him like he was insane.

"Huh, sorry everyone ignore him." a red haired girl said with a nervous smile as she put her hands on Sora's shoulders and pushed him into the seat.

"Thanks Kairi." Sora said looking at her with a cheesy smile.

Ven stole the drawing and studied it some turning it every which way, trying to place the face with a name himself but threw it on the table. "Nope, I got nothing."

Next Vanitas picked up the drawing and looked at it and rubbed his chin some and hummed a bit. "Well, I have no idea who she is, but I'd screw her." he said with a smirk.

Aqua reached over, took the picture, and then hit him outside the head, saying "Commentary not needed." and getting a yelp of pain from the raven haired boy.

He gave her an apologetic smile and whined, "I was just kidding."

"It doesn't matter, you don't need to be a jerk." Terra said crossing his arms. "Girls do have feelings you know."

"Yeah, that's why I look for ones like that one. She's so heartless, even the Heartless avoid her." Vanitas said.

Sora sighed. "I wouldn't say she's heartless, only cold and maybe her heart is just frozen over because of the way she seems to care about the Heartless a lot. I mean she seems to always be hugging one. She was when I meet her and she is in this drawing." he stated.

"Really?" Ven asked looking at Sora.

"Yeah, she didn't want to put it down by the looks of it." He sighed some. "I wish we knew something."

"Well, we don't but tonight I will." Vanitas said with a sly smile.

"You are not going out tonight, at least not to torment this poor girl." Kairi snapped as Namine nodded.

"You can't stop me. Besides, you and Sora have a date tonight, so he can't go out and do the check around." the amber eyed boy said with a smirk.

Kairi blushed and hides her face in her hands. Namine gave Vanitas a dark look. Vanitas just shrugged and smiled.

"How did you know?" Sora asked looking at him.

"You don't need to know." he replied with a yawn. "Well I should get some sleep, so I'm at my best when I meet this girl, and maybe I'll get her name." with that he got up and left the rest of the group.

XXXXXXXXXX

That night Vanitas walked around the town slaying all the heartless he laid his eyes on, in hopes of getting the girl to show up but none of them seem to bring her. He was tired and so he leaned his head on the bricks of the wall he stood by, and suddenly a metal fan with the heartless symbol was on the blades was inches from his nose. He looked surprised and put his guard up and looked around.

Then his eyes fell on a girl with cold red eyes with anger in her eyes. He wasn't expecting her to have weapons, because he had to dodge another fan that almost cut his arm off. He looked over at her only to find her gone.

"Where did you go?" he said to himself only to find a fan to his throat and the girl in front of him.

"You've killed the most heartless out of all of them in one night." she hissed. "What have they done to you?"

"They tend to take people's hearts." he answered and grabbed her wrist. Next thing he knew he was on his back. He didn't think she would that strong. "Hey, I only did it to get you to come out of hiding."

She looked surprised and let his arm go and back up playing with one of her curls. "You... you wanted to see me?" she asked, slight blush danced on her cheeks as she looked at the ground some.

"Yes, and I must say you are very unique thing to see. How does one such as your beauty become something of the darkness?" he asked getting up and moving closer to her.

"I don't remember anything about my past." she said softly watching him.

"Come on, you look like you need a bed to sleep in." he said holding out his hand.

"I don't sleep." She replied watching his hand.

"I see, well you must have a name at least." the raven haired boy said with a charming smile. "I'm Vanitas."

She moved around him and collected her other fan and hide it under her skirt. "Raven." she responded looking at him.

"Well, Raven. Would you like to come to my place and stay the night?"

She thought about it for a moment then nodded. "You're a strange man, but you're also a lot nicer than the other guy, who looked like you." she smiled some.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"You can't stay in those clothes, that'll give you a way to Sora." Vanitas said as he looked in his closet. "These are all too large, maybe Ventus has something for you to wear."

He went into the blonde's room and opened his closet in a noisy fashion that woke the blond. "Vanitas, what are you doing in my room?!" he snapped rubbing the sleep from his blue eyes.

"Raven need clothes to wear, and mine are too large for her." the raven haired boy replied digging around and throwing a shirt and pants and the girl. "Those should keep you nice and cozy."

"Stop lending your girlfriends my clothes." Ven said.

"This one is the one Sora was talking about." Vanitas said.

Ven jumped out of bed and looked at Raven more closely and saw that she was the girl from the picture. He was amazed at how little emotion on in her eyes. "Alright, but she's not staying long."

"Alright, but she'll have to stay on the fold out bed." the amber eyed boy said.

Ven sighed, since it was the only place she would have to sleep, unless one of them were going to share a bed with her, and if she shared one with Vanitas, no one knows what he'd do to the poor girl. "I'll go get her blankets as she changes, you get the bed ready." Ven said dragging Vanitas out of his room and closing the door.

Raven watched them both leave, then looked at the clothes in her arms. She was confused on everything. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. She dropped the clothes and looked at them one by one, and slowly realized how they went. Slow she changed and looked at herself in the mirror that was in the room.

She opened the door and walked out into the room that the two boys where, to see them fighting over how the bed should look. She tilted her head some and walked over as a heartless formed by her feet and walked beside her. She noticed it and smiled, picking it up and carrying it in her arms. She nuzzled it as it made its sounds that brought her comfort in this strange place.

"What is a heartless doing in here?" Ven asked.

"He's my friend." Raven said.

"They steal hearts of people." he replied.

"He won't take hearts." she responded holding the creature closer to her breasts.

"Just let her keep it. If it tries anything, I'll get rid of it, let's just make her happy right now." Vanitas said walking over to Raven. "You may rest on the fold out bed tonight. Tomorrow you'll meet our friends."

"You have more friends?" she asked looking up at him.

"Of course." he said with a smirk.

"Okay." she said sitting on the end of the bed.

"Rest up, we'll see you in the morning." Ven said going back into his room.

"Don't lose that charm." Vanitas said with a wink and went into his room.

Raven laid back, the mattress was softer than anything less she had felt. Her eyelids grew heavy, as she felt something she had never felt before, but she liked the feeling as she curled up and fell asleep with the heartless cuddled against her. Falling asleep as images flooded through her dream, she didn't understand only felt the pain of something run through her.

She sat up, only to knock heads with Ven. She looked at him with a scared look in her eyes as tears formed at the corners of her eyes. She let go of the heartless and put her hands on her head. Ven sat down by her.

"Raven, what's wrong? You were making strange sounds." Ven asked looking at her.

"I don't know, I felt something I've never felt before and then there were these pictures in my head, and I felt nothing but pain. I'm so confused." she replied rubbing her head.

"You had a dream, that's all." he explained. "They happen sometimes when you sleep."

"I've never slept before. I guess it's something I'll have to get used to." she replied as she looked at the heartless that crawled onto her lap and sat there. She smiled at it and looked at Ven. "I hope I didn't wake you up."

"Nah, I couldn't sleep so I came to get something to munch on." he said.

"Oh, alright then. I guess I should go back to sleep or do something." she said rubbing the Heartless's head, getting strange coos from it.

"You could take a shower." Ven suggested with a shy smile.

"A shower?" she questioned.

Ven explained it to her and then lead her to the bathroom so she could take one. He was caught off guard by her starting to remove her clothes with him in the room. He rushed out, closing the door behind him as blush danced across his cheeks. He felt like an idiot since he should have realized that Raven didn't seem to understand anything right now. But that can happen after his heart stops racing.

XXXXXXX

Vanitas woke up in the late morning by Raven's heartless jumping on his bed, only for Raven to join it. Throwing him off the bed. He curled up on his side and groaned since the air was cold and his warm bed was taken over by a girl and her heartless. But she screamed and fell off the other side of the bed for some reason.

He sat up and found his Flood unversed on his bed, kinda yelling at her, as she curled up against the wall with the heartless in her arms. The look of fear was in her red eyes again. Vanitas was puzzled for a moment, then realized that she had never seen an unversed before and was probably scared of it.

"It's alright, she's like your heartless, my pet." he said picking up the blue creature. "She's gentle, she just gets jealous of those who share a bed with me."

"He's not a pet, he is my friend!" Raven snapped standing up. "It tried to hurt me."

Vanitas found that the girl was going to hate the blue creature until she understood it. He held the unversed in his arm and he used his other hand to pet its head. "Look, she's very gentle, why don't you come pet her?" he asked.

"No, I'd rather not." Raven shot heading out of his room, never turning her back to him.


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh my god!" the girls squealed running at Raven. "She's so cute!"

Raven jumped back and drew out her metal fans ready to attack them, only for Ventus and Vanitas to take one away each. She looked at them confused for a moment. Then saw the calm look on their faces, and relaxed some.

"Sorry about that. She's not used to getting that much attention." Ven apologized with a nervous smile.

"Oh, that's fine." Aqua said putting her hand out. "I'm Aqua, if you ever need anything you can ask me."

Raven stared at her hand confused for a moment, then slowly reached out and took it. "Raven; I'm the Guardian of the Heartless. And this Heartless is Drags, my friend." she said as Aqua shook her hand.

Everyone introduced themselves carefully to Raven, to make sure she didn't get too nervous. After so long Raven got her fans back and everyone seemed to relax some. They started talking and joking around only to learn Raven didn't understand half of the things they were talking about. Kairi found it a nightmare that Raven didn't know what a mall was and was borrowing Ven's clothes.

"We have to take her shopping for clothes!" Kairi shouted hugging Raven.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Terra stated.

"Why not?" Sora asked confused.

"She's nervous around us, what will happen when she's in a crowded mall." Aqua said patting Raven's head.

"Aw, come on. Let's make her try on hot clothes that make her look hotter." Vanitas whined.

"NO!" everyone else yelled in his face, at Raven watched confused. Vanitas flinched and he rubbed his ears, from the shouting he got.

"I wanna try it." Raven said hugging Drags to her chest more, getting a strange sound out of him.

"WHAT!" they all yelled making her jump back some?

A nervous look filled her eyes because she felt like she may have angered them. "I... I thought I could give it a try." she replied softly.

Riku watched the girl carefully, because the moment she got scared Neo shadows started to appear around her. He quickly summoned his keyblade to slay them but Sora stopped him.

"Don't. I'm sure they're only here because she's freaked out. Killing them will only upset her and trust me, you don't want to fight her." he explained.

"They'll harm the people of the town if I don't." Riku snapped.

"No, let her calm down." Ven said watching Raven as she looked at the Neo Shadows.

"It's alright you guys. I'm fine." she said to them patting one's head. They made their strange sounds as she told them she was fine until they settled down and slipped out of sight. Riku looked at her amazed at how she handled them.

"She has that much control of them?" he asked looking at his friend.

"We don't know what she can do with them." Sora replied. "But maybe if we gain her trust, the heartless won't attack our home anymore."

Riku wasn't so sure. For all he knew Raven was just tricking them into trusting her, so she could take their hearts. He had to keep his eye on her when he could or else something might go wrong and it would be too late to stop anything. He refused to let that happen. This girl, they knew nothing about and they didn't know what she could do. It was best to sit back and learn something. He was gonna let that happen, let her show her true self.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They went to the mall and Raven was nervous but seemed fine as long as she hugged Drags and was near Ventus or Vanitas. She seemed to take the most comfort from the raven haired boy. She stayed close to him as they had a small chat about random little things but there wasn't much for Raven to talk about.

"VANITAS!" a group of girls shouted running over to the boy, scaring Raven away from him as the herd of girls surrounded him.

Vanitas smiled at the group of girls, as Raven took cover in Ventus's care. She looked really nervous, as Drags seemed to wiggle in her arms. A couple heartless started to show up, until Ventus noticed and started to pet her hair to calm her some. The heartless calmed down as well and left. Leaving the mall safe, but Drags still seemed to be nervous about something.

"Raven, look at this outfit." Kairi said with a smile pointing at a black lace dress in a window.

Raven and Ventus moved over to the redhead and looked at the dress. Raven studied it closely. Kairi and Ventus watched her quietly, only the sound of other people in the mall, talking to others around them. Raven looked at Kairi.

"It doesn't have the heartless symbol." she said finally.

"None of the clothes here are gonna have the symbol on it."

"Why not?" Raven asked looking confused.

"Because no one knows of the symbol." Terra stated poking her arm band.

Raven looked at her arm band then at Terra. "Then can we get it put on the clothes?" she questioned.

"We could, but that would be a lot of work, dear." Aqua explained with a gentle smile.

"If you teach me, I'll do it." the girl replied looking up at the blue haired woman.

"She really wants the symbol on her clothes doesn't she?" Namine said with a smile. She adjusted the small bag on her shoulder. "I would like to draw her with more emotions."

Raven looked confused for a moment but shook it away as she looked at the other clothes. She did not seem to have much interest in any other color but black. The girls tried getting her into outfits that had all kinds of color to them, mostly bright ones. But Raven only likes black with red or white outfits. No one could sway her mind away from those three colors.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Are you sure these few outfits are enough?" Ventus asked looking at the two bags that were in his hands.

Raven nodded as they walked down the street. "I'm sure that's enough for now, I believe." she replied nibbling on some French fries.

"You seem to like those fries." Vanitas stated watching her some.

"At least she's eating something." Ven said looking at the dark haired boy. "Even though it's not the healthiest thing to eat."

"I don't care, it will not bother my health or body in anyway." Raven snapped before shoving a fistful into her mouth.

The two boys couldn't help but laugh at her as they headed back to their apartment. Raven watched the sky changed color as the sun began set. She ended up heading towards the beach. It took the boys a moment to realize where she went. They quickly caught up. Raven stood at the edge of the water, letting it run over her boots, soaking them. The gentle wind blew her long, curly hair around.

"I've never seen it like this before." she said softly not taking her eyes off the water.

"Yeah, it's very beautiful." Ventus replied looking at the waves crashing.

Vanitas watched them from the beach. He was surprised at Raven's reaction to the colors of the sunset. But then again she seemed to hide from the light for the longest time. The fact they managed to get her to come out was a miracle. Raven watched the waves some and then looked at Ventus.

"I feel like I've seen this before, but it feels like a different life." she stated before turning around walking away.

XXXXXXXXX

"She can't stay with us all the time." Ven pointed out the next day, as the group met up between classes.

"I could take her, but I don't really have a room for her to stay in." Kairi offered.

Everyone recalled that she lived with the Mayor and Namine had moved in with them, taking the only spare room in the house. So Raven would be stuck on the floor or couch, something they didn't want for her.

"What about Riku's place?" Sora asked looking at his best friend.

Riku tensed under everyone's gaze. So far he hasn't put in any input about what to do with Raven, mostly because he has shown not to trust the girl yet. But he did have the largest house out of the group.

Roxas and Sora stayed at Sora's place, though Sora was staying in a dorm at the College, which Riku stayed in a good amount of the time because it was easier to study there than at home. Home is where his parents asked him questions about his day and if he had gotten a girlfriend yet.

"I don't think that would be a good idea." Riku replied trying to think of a way out of this.

"How?" Terra asked with a raised brow. "You do have more room than anyone else here."

Raven was already staying on the fold out at Ven and Vanitas' place, while Kairi's place didn't even have a fold out. Terra and Aqua had a single room apartment together, while Sora's place was also full because of Roxas and Sora's part time staying. Riku's really was the only place for her to stay long term.

"How do we know she won't turn on us?" Riku asked crossing his arms.

The girl's all glared at him, "she's had time to do something to us."

"If she was going to act out, she would have by now." Sora pointed out putting his hands behind his head.

Roxas nodded along with Namine.

"I guess, I'll go get her after my next class." Riku groaned.

Vanitas tossed his keys to the pale haired man, "you'll need these to get in. Raven doesn't take well to the buzzer going off."

"We learned that last night when we ordered pizza." Ventus explained with a scared looked passed over his blue eyes.

The girls gave a worried look, "what happened?" The asked in unison.

"We're not going to tell the gruesome details, but we had to give the Pizza guy a pretty big tip." Vanitas complained crossing his arms over his chest.

Everyone flinched at the sound of a large tip, because that meant Raven caused harm to the Pizza guy. Or did something to scare the poor guy to the point where he probably wet himself.

"Well, I have class." Namine stated getting up with all of her stuff.

"Have a good time." Kairi waved as her friend went off to her class.

Roxas and Sora got up not long after. "Speaking of classes."

"Take care of Raven, Riku." Aqua smiled patting his silver head.

"Be gentle with her too." Ventus threw in as he got up.

Soon Riku as left alone, because having to head off to his class.

From what he had been told by Ven and Vanitas, Raven was fearful yet a scary foe at the same time. This made him still believe that she could be up to something, only he wasn't sure what it was she could be planning.

He sighed to himself before going into his class. There was too much mystery to this girl and he didn't like it.

XXXXXXXXX

"Why are you here?" Where the first words out of Raven's mouth, when Riku entered the apartment.

He stared in shock, to see her sitting in the middle of the fold out which was covered in crumbs and bags of junk food. Her hair was going in several directions like she slept on her head all night long, and the shirt she was wearing was covered in stains. A horror movie played on the TV in front of her.

"How did you get so dirty?" He asked trying not to freak out.

There was no way he could take her to his parents place looking like that, they'll think he's taking in a homeless person.

Then he remembered that Raven was homeless.

"You didn't answer my question." Raven stated before shoving more BB-Q chips into her mouth.

"You're coming to live with me, since I actually have a room for you to stay in." He answered cleaning off her bed.

He didn't care at the moment, he threw all the junk food in the trash bin before he pulled Raven off the bed and removed the sheet to shake off the crumbs. "How can you stand to be so dirty?" He questioned again as Drags latched onto the sheet he shook. "Damn Heartless, I'm trying to clean not play!"

The dark haired girl scooped up the creature in her arms, and held him in a protective manner. "You don't have to yell at him!" She snapped.

"I'm trying to clean up the mess you created." Riku retorted showing her how messy the living room was. "And don't get me started on how you look."

Raven flinched before looking down at herself. "What's wrong with how I look?" Her hands went through her hair without getting caught in tangles.

"Did you even brush your hair?" He asked going to Ventus' bathroom and grabbing the brush from in there.

"Yes." Raven answered.

Only cried out in pain when Riku started to brush her hair, finding all kinds of knots and tangles in the curly mess she called hair. He also took note at how long her hair was, falling well past her hips. It was much longer when he realized that her hair was mostly curls and waves. It was also stringy and riddled with split ends.

He pulled her hair into a pony tail, "this will have to do for now until we can get you haircut." He muttered as Raven looked in the mirror.

Her bangs and some hair remained to frame her face, but the rest of the thick mess was contained in a single rubber band. Riku was impressed with himself for getting all of her hair into one band, without it breaking.

SNAP!

Raven cried out and grabbed her head where the band snapped her, while Riku watched in horror as his hard work went down the drain. But he shook it off.

"Let's just get you to my place." Riku ordered grabbing the clothes bags she had from shopping the other day. "Is there anything we should pick up for you on the way there? Toothbrush? Socks? Underwear? Anything you can think of that you will need?"

Raven shrugged. "I have no idea, Ven and Vanitas were trying to teach me everything at once."

This was going to harder than he had thought. This girl was so clueless on what she needed for hygiene care and he was supposed to somehow to teach her this stuff.

"Okay, we'll get you the basics and see from there." He answered himself dragging her out of the door.

"Pants!" Raven screamed in shock when they got to the front door of the building.

"What?!" Riku snapped before looking down at Raven's bare legs.

She was only wearing one of the guy's shirts at the moment. He hadn't noticed until now and he tried to take her outside looking like she was doing some walk of shame.

Letting out a puff of air, they went back to the apartment so she could a pair of pants on. Raven didn't seem too upset about not having pants on but Riku didn't need anyone thinking bad things about her when they didn't know her.

XXXXXXXXXXX

They stopped at the drug store for the basics for her stay at his place. Getting her a toothbrush, hair brush and shower stuff as well. Everyone in the store stared at Raven, since she stuck out like a sore thumb on an island where everyone knew everyone.

"Who is she?"

"Did she come from the mainland?"

"I didn't know he had a girlfriend."

Riku tried to ignore the questioned but Raven didn't stop asking him about them. This dug into his nerve more and more by the minute.

The checkout counter was probably the worst because the high schooler working started to hit on Raven, who didn't understand what was going on.

"She's too old for you, man." Riku growled handing the teen his card.

"I find that hard to believe, she only looks sixteen." The teen argued back. "What are you? Her older brother?"

"No, he is not." Raven jumped in suddenly. "He's taking me in."

"Be quiet." Riku hissed looking down at her with sharp, pale eyes.

"It's the truth!" She quipped back, clueless about everything.

"Taking in mainland strays?" The teen asked handing Riku back his card.

Without saying another word, Riku took the new bags and pulled Raven out of the store. She started to complain that he was hurting her wrist, when several Large Bodies appeared around them. Cutting off all exits for them.

"Call them off!" Riku shouted at her, trying to stay calm enough so they wouldn't attack.

"They won't leave until I'm not hurt." Raven replied trying to free herself from his grip.

He released her wrist but grabbed her arms. "You have to understand that the Heartless will hurt the innocent people around us! You have to understand that people are you going to hurt you in many ways but that's part of life."

He gave her several small shakes trying to get through to her, only to find a small knife at his throat.

Fear and tears were in Raven's eyes as she bit her lower lip some. "Ven told me, I could trust you not to hurt me. He was wrong."

Riku backed off some, letting her go.

That was a mistake because once he let go of the shaken girl. She sunk into the shadows created by the Large Bodies and they followed her.

He cursed when he realized how much he had messed up. He had one job and he failed at it because he let his judgement get in the way. Though no one would blame him completely for being the one on guard. He had pulled something just like this back in high school, he knew how easily someone could turn on their friends in a second.

"Raven!" He shouted setting out to find her.

Everyone would understand that he was upset but they'd be mad if he didn't try to look for her.

How hard could it be to find her?

He looked down dark alley ways, and through broken broads in closed up houses and buildings.

What did he know about her?

Nothing.

Everyone knew nothing about Raven. Finding her was going to be hard because if she wasn't anywhere on the island she was probably hiding in the Darkness, a place none of them would be able to reach her.

"Dammit, I messed up big time." He cursed himself out some more before calling Vanitas.

XXXXXXXX

"How could you do that to her?" Ven yelled at his friend once the whole gang was together.

"I was stressed out, okay!" Riku snapped. "You don't do well under certain pressure too!"

Aqua put herself between the guys. "Guys, fighting isn't going to find her."

Terra nodded in agreement, "we should all split up and look around for her. Talk to the Heartless that we do see and see if that draws her out. Do not attack them because we don't want to upset her more."

Everyone agreed with that before breaking off into groups of two. Though it was Vanitas that went off on his own, in hopes that the fact that he brought her home would be the key to brining her out of hiding again.

"Raven!" The dark haired male called.

Once he knew for sure that he was alone and away from his friends, he summoned up a few of his Unversed. Ordering them to search the area for him, while he went to actually look in the void of darkness for her.

"She has to be there." He muttered to himself while sinking into a shadow.

It made him nervous to try this since it has been a while since the last time he did this, but it was going to worth it.

XXXXXXXXXX

Pain throbbed through her wrist as she sat in the darkness, hugging the injured limp against her chest. She didn't like Riku, he had hurt her when Ven had promised he wouldn't do such a thing.

Had her trust been in the wrong hands or was Ven's? Her head spun as the questions went around in circles in her head. It made her stomach turn and her throat feel tight. It made the air feel thin, something she had never experienced before.

Purring grabbed her attention. Drags was standing in front of her, begging for her attention.

"Drags." She choked out pulling the critter against her chest.

He made all kinds of cooing and clicking sounds as she buried her nose into the side of his big head.

"Thank you for always being here for me." She sniffled softly.

"I can be there for you too, all you had to do was ask."

Her head shot up. Red met amber.

"Vanitas." She whispered getting to her feet. "You found me."

"I'll always find you if you hide out here." He replied holding his hand out to her.

An odd warmth spread through her chest as she took his hand. He had known where to find her, even though Riku had scared her so bad.

"Riku has some expression issues, so don't take too much he says to heart."

Raven started to pout. "He didn't hurt my feelings, I have no feelings." She showed him her bruised wrist. "He hurt my arm."

He reached over and wiped a tear from her cheek. "These tell me you have a heart and he hurt it. So let's go back so he can tell you how sorry he is, and you can stay with Ven and me one more night."

She nodded as the darkness faded into a nighttime shade. A few streetlights were off in the distance but they could see.

Vanitas pulled out his cell and called everyone to let them know he found Raven and they waited where they were at for everyone to show up.

"Raven!" Kairi shouted wrapping her arms around the recovered girl. "We were worried about you!"

Raven was shocked by the hug but simply gave one back to Kairi. Trying to show her that she was alright.

"Vanitas knew where to find me." She replied softly.

"Are you alright?" Namine asked coming over to the other two.

Raven showed them her bruised wrist.

"RIKU!" They turned into witches and started cursing out Riku along with him hitting a few times.

There was no way for him to stop them. It took Roxas and Sora to pull them away from the silver haired man as they tried to take their wrath out on him. They quickly turned it to the two that pulled them away.

"Girls, I think Riku has learned his lesson here!" Aqua cut in.

The two stopped and looked at the older woman with guilty smiles. "Sorry."

"No, they had the right. They were worried about Raven and I hurt her." Riku explained.

Raven came up to Riku. "I'm sorry for putting you under so much stress."

His eyes widen to hear her say that. "I'm sorry for hurting you and scaring you like that." He replied patting her shoulder. "My house is open for you to come and stay when you're ready."

"One more night with Ven and Vanitas and I'll take your offer." She stated with a shy smile.

"Works for me."


	3. Chapter 3

A couple of weeks passed but Riku and Raven still a rocky relationship, but they did try their best to get along. Though sometimes that seemed to be hard during days before a big test. Riku was trying to study for another one but Raven was bored out of her mind, being coped up in the house all day.

"Riku, I want to go see everyone!" Raven whined shaking his chair.

The young man was trying hard not to bite her head off, but knotting his hand in his hair wasn't working from keeping his nerves from leaving him.

"I have to study, or I would take you to see everyone else. But you have to think about the fact that Namine has a big art project due in a couple days. Everyone has something due or something big going on right now."

Raven groaned falling her to her knees. "Then can I watch one of those movies I like?" She asked looking up at him.

"In your room, I can't listen to your screaming when something scares you." He replied getting up from his desk.

Letting out a groan, she got up and followed him to her room.

"Which one do you want to watch?" He asked going through his horror movie collection.

Raven came over and looked at the cover of each movie then sorted them into two different piles. "This one, I have watched, these ones I haven't." She explained pointing out each one was. "I want to finish the unwatched pile."

Riku nodded and put in one of the movies and turned on the TV. Raven couldn't work the electronics yet, though Vanitas and the girls were talking about getting Raven a phone, so she could call them instead of having Riku do it all for her.

"Lights on or off?" Riku asked from the door way, as Raven crawled into the middle of the bed with Drags in her arms.

"Off."

He flicked them off and went back into his room. So far taking care of Raven hadn't hindered his grades but that did worry him that it would happen.

His phone buzzed a couple of times.

 _Coming over_

It was from Vanitas.

He groaned because he didn't need Vanitas coming around to cause trouble. But it was possible he was coming over to see Raven. Something he's been doing lately.

He was about to reply to the text when Vanitas opened his bedroom door. "Let myself in, and I'm gonna watch movies with Raven."

XXXXXXXXXXX

With Vanitas around the horror movies didn't make Raven scream as much. Mostly because the dark haired boy covered her mouth to save his ears from bleeding.

At one point Vanitas helped himself to Riku's kitchen and popped some popcorn for the two of them. Adding salt and melted butter to add flavor. Raven enjoyed it while watching the next couple of movies.

Near the end of the third movie, Riku poked his head in, making Raven and Vanitas scream. This got the popcorn bowl thrown at him.

"Sorry, man." Vanitas laughed once he realized who it was.

"Yeah, very funny." Riku replied removing the greasy bowl from his head. "Time for you to go home, Vanitas."

"Why can't he stay?" Raven asked with puppy eyes.

"Because he has classes early in the morning and I do not." Riku explained.

Raven was basically running on Riku's schedule for everything. Though he couldn't really control if she went to bed when he did or if she took naps during the day when he was away at class.

"Alright, you proved your point." Vanitas caved giving up so quickly.

"If it wasn't so close to the end of the term I wouldn't be like this." Riku stated as his amber eyed friend came to the doorway.

Vanitas nodded, "I get it. After all the finals how about we have a party? Get Raven to know a few more people?"

Riku gave him a confused looked before looking at the young woman on the bed. She was lost in the movie that played, not hearing a single thing they were saying.

"It is a good idea?" He asked unsure of it all.

"Kairi was the one to come with the idea. Something about dressing up Raven." Vanitas explained tilting his head some.

"That means getting Raven more clothes." Riku noted crossing his arms.

"The girls said they'd cover it this time around." Putting his hands up in defense.

Riku rubbed his head some then let out a sigh. "I'll think about it but I've barely figured her out. She's in a good mood most of the time but the smallest of things put her in bad ones, plus we don't need someone taking advantage of her cluelessness."

Vanitas nodded. "Okay, I'll come over and teach her a few things about lecherous guys."

"Takes one to know one." Riku teased going to his room. "See yourself out."

Vanitas said his goodbyes to Raven before leaving Riku's place.

He went to a party rather than going home and getting some sleep. Something about the party called his name.

It was probably the drinking games and the hot babes that danced all around him.

This was his place when he wasn't with his friends, though it didn't feel the same when he stole a young woman's heart.

Riku hadn't been wrong about Vanitas being a womanizer, but he was still young. He was going to have all the fun he could. If that meant it was with a couple of girls at a time, he was going to do just that.

Sure, he thought about Raven nearly every hour of every day since he's meet her but she was too clueless to play the games he liked to play. It also didn't feel right to try anything with her because she was so different from everyone else in the world. She was too innocent even though she had a twisted mind.

"Hey, want to show a good girl a good time, bad boy?" A woman whispered in Vanitas' ear when he was dancing.

His head was buzzing with booze and weariness but that didn't stop him from giving the woman his hand.

She led him to a room on the second floor and into a dark room.

XXXXXXXXX

Birds chirping outside her window is what woke Raven up. Her long hair fanning out around her, waves of red mixed with the dark purple strands. She closed her eyes for a few more minutes before realizing that the whole house was too quiet.

She sat up slowly, before itching a spot on her head. "Riku?"

Climbing out of her bed, she went down the hall to his room.

Knocking gently on his door, she got no reply.

"Riku?" She called softly before trying the door.

It was open, so she let herself in.

"Riku, don't you have to get ready for the day?" She asked giving his sleeping form a gentle shake.

"Five more minutes." He groaned rolling over.

"Riku, it's almost the afternoon, I thought you have afternoon classes today." She replied shaking him more.

He shot up like a bullet. "Shit!" He cursed starting to get ready.

Raven watched as he hurried to get ready. She had never seen Riku in such a panic before.

"Where are my books?" Riku asked picking up his bag, finding it empty.

"Your desk." Raven pointed from the end of his bed.

Rushing over the silver haired man shoved the books and notes into his bag before throwing it over his shoulder.

He patted his pockets. "Keys?"

Raven crawled up his bed to his nightstand and held them out to him. "Right here."

"Thanks." He breathed before shoving them into his pocket.

He did a couple glance overs of his room trying to remember anything else he may need.

"I think that's everything." Raven stated looking around herself.

"Phone." He said suddenly going to his desk again and grabbing it.

Raven got off his bed and followed him to the front door.

"You'll be alright by yourself?" He asked as he stepped outside.

Nodding with a soft smile, "I can make a sandwich if I get hungry or a bowl of cereal. I can manage watching simple TV while you're gone." She confirmed as he got into his car.

"You know where the phone is in case you need to call me or 911?"

She nodded some more and told him where the phone and the list of phone numbers was in the house. "Riku, go to class. I'll be okay on my own."

He ran his hands through his hair some. "Right, you can handle somethings on your own."

She waved as he pulled out of the driveway.

When she turned around and looked back at the empty house, her chest felt hallow. The idea of being here alone actually started to scare her because of spending time with people. Raven had never noticed how lonely she had been until she meet everyone.

"I'll go take a shower." She said to herself softly.

XXXXXXXX

The house was too quiet for her, even the sound of the TV or radio running at all times weren't enough to calm her nerves. She yelped when the pipes settled or a car passed the house.

A loud bang sounded from the front window, causing a scream of bloody murder. Raven reared back from the living into a side table in the hall, knocking off a family photo. The glass shattered and flew everywhere.

"Oh no!" She panicked placing her hands wrong to get back up.

The broken shards cut into the palm of her hand and she cried out in pain and pulled back.

"This is so bad." She groaned unsure how to take the sight of the red stuff forming on her hand.

The sound of the front door opening caused another scream as she tried to scoot away on her butt, only to put her foot on a glass shard.

"OW!" She cried out.

"Raven?" Riku's voice called coming into the hall. His pale eyes widened when he saw the scene before him. "What happened?"

He came over and quickly picked her up and moved her away from the glass.

"There was a loud sound from the window, I knocked the frame over. Now this red stuff is coming out of my hand!" She explained showing him her bleeding hand.

He sighed and placed her on the counter next to the kitchen sink. "Let me see your foot first."

Nodding, she held up her foot so he could see it in the light. His warm fingers ran around the area of the pain before pulling out a small shard of glass. Raven's red eyes widen in surprise at the sight of the reddish crystal that came from her foot.

"The glass cut my foot?" She questioned as he threw it away.

"You don't realize that it can hurt you when it's broken?" He retorted placing her foot in the sink and turning on the cold water.

It stung the cut. A yelp came from her as she tried to pull her foot away but he was stronger and forced her foot back under the running water. "We've got to clean it out so it doesn't get infected."

She pouted and tried to cross her arms but forgot about her hand until she smeared blood across her arm. That caused stinging to form in her palm.

"Ouch!" She cried pulling it away.

Riku took her hand and looked at it like he did her foot. His hands careful and gentle, something she hadn't felt from him before. She only knew about him being rough, the faint bruises on her wrist reminded her every time she looked at them.

"I need to get the tweezers, stay right here." He ordered before walking off.

Raven looked at her hand some, trying to see what he saw but her eyes didn't catch anything off.

Riku didn't take long, he was back moments later with a first aid kit. She watched as he opened it and got out a small metal object and took her hand in his again. She couldn't see once he pulled it to face him more but she felt it dig in.

"That hurts!" She snapped trying to pull away.

"Do you want me to get the glass out or not? Because if I don't you'll keep bleeding." Riku barked back taking her hand.

She groaned and flinched every time he didn't get the glass out.

"It's taking too long." She whined getting sick of him poking around.

"You're not used to getting hurt are you?" He asked looking at her with serious blue eyes.

She narrowed her eyes, "I'm strong, and I never got hurt in a fight." She replied quickly.

A smug look formed on his face. "What fights have you been in?" He asked only to get a dark look from her.

"Plenty, from other keyblade holders." She stated simply, her tone a hard one.

He knew the cue to change the subject, but he really didn't need to since he pulled out the shard of glass in her hand. He rinsed her hand in the sink before putting bandages on the cuts to keep them clean.

"There, you're done." He informed as she jumped down.

She looked up at him, questions filled her eyes but instead of asking any of them she went off to her room. Leaving him to clean up the broken frame.

Raven had a lot to learn about the world, more than he thought. The only question was how was she gonna take learning how the world really is?

XXXXXXXXx

"Riku!" Raven shouted barging into his room.

He jumped from his bed and looked at her with wide eyes. "What's wrong?!" He replied searching for new cuts on her.

"I want to leave the house and see everyone." She stated crossing her arms.

He sighed and fell back on the bed, "you gave me a heart attack."

"Don't joke about there being a problem with your heart." She snapped suddenly her hand resting where her heart would be.

He gave her a confused look but sat up again. "Okay; so what do you want do so badly?"

She stomped her good foot on the wooden floor, "get out of this house!"

It sunk in that she has been trapped in the house for a nearly a week now, because everyone had been so busy with school work or managing their own lives. Raven wasn't sure about the town, so she had been avoiding going out on her own since she could get lost easily.

"Let me make a few calls and see if we can get out to the pier." He replied pulling out his phone.

Raven let out a cry of joy while crashing into the young man, her arms wrapping around his neck. "Thank you! This place is really starting to scare me when you're not around."

A raised brow was all she got from him before realizing how close they were. She quickly pulled away and seated herself on the edge of his bed. "The house makes a lot of noises when no one else is around."

"That's the pipes settling." He replied brushing hair from his face.

She gave him a confused look but didn't ask any questions.

This gave him time to call Sora and Kairi. They would call everyone else from there, since they liked the idea of going out to ride some rides and play some games. Kairi offered to come over right away to get Raven ready for the whole ordeal.

"You make it sound like she's going on a date." Riku stated trying to figure girl's out again.

Kairi sighed on the other side of the line, "You don't understand because you're a guy, but she'll thank me in the future."

XXXXXXX

Kairi showed up with a couple bags worth of clothes she didn't wear anymore. And carefully went through them with Raven until Kairi was ready to dress the dark haired girl. Raven tried to object to the idea of wearing pink or anything light colored but in the end Kairi won the fight.

Raven's hair was put into twin braids that were fluffed out to look very large. A pair of faded skinny jeans with a white shirt that had a pink heart on the front of it. Finally Kairi found a pair of old, large, black frame glasses. She removed the glass and put them on Raven.

"I think she looks cute, plus no one will know who she is." Kairi beamed with her hands on her hips.

"No one knows who she is already as is." Riku replied watching Raven look in the mirror.

"Well, the outfit draws attention from her red eyes. Those will be hard to explain." She explained turning Raven around to show Riku completely.

The sound of several footsteps came up the stair way, and all their friends filed into the room.

"Who is that?" Sora asked walking over to Raven.

Raven puffed her cheek in a pouting form, "It's Raven." She replied crossing her arms.

Surprise crossed Namine, Ven and Vanitas' faces. "She looks so different."

Raven wasn't sure if this was a good thing. She felt different and it bothered her, she wasn't sure if the feeling was good or bad herself.

She turned to the mirror and played with her long bangs, which were held out of her eyes by the glasses frames. The jeans clung to her legs like a second skin, it was like she could barely move.

"I need something dark to wear." She muttered softly.

"Kairi, she looks great but dark colors suit her so much better." Vanitas stated suddenly tucking a red beanie hat over Raven's head.

Crossing her arms the red head stuck out her tongue. "Well, I wanted to make her cute but not so dark."

Raven turned to Vanitas, who shrugged off his black and red zip up sweater and handed it to her. She smiled and pulled it on, only it barely hung onto her shoulders and covered her hands. It may as well should have been a dress on her, but it smelt like Vanitas, which brought her a comfort from when she stayed with him and Ven.

She took the sleeves to her nose, there was musky smell mixed with an odd smoky smell as well as a bitter smell. These were the scent that clung to Vanitas until he showered and wore freshly washed clothes.

"Thank you." She murmured looking up at him.

A smirk formed on his lips, "It's gonna be cold once you ride on the rides."

She gave a confused look but no one filled her in as they started to leave the house. She tried to get answers but no one would. This wasn't something she liked, she liked knowing what was going on.


	4. Chapter 4

The bright and colorful lights as well as the cheerful and upbeat music is what amazed Raven the most when she stepped onto the pier. The scent of all the different deep fried foods over whelmed her sense of smell but what really sent her head spinning was the fact that all of this sat above the ocean water, held up by old wooden boards and metal fixtures.

"Are you alright?" Terra asked looking down at Raven.

She frowned some while testing the board before her. "It makes a lot of sound." She stated simply.

"It won't brake under you." He assured her, rubbing her hat covered head some.

"Let's go on the roller coaster." Sora cheered jumping up and down, pointing at the largest ride on the dock.

Raven's eyes turned into moons when she looked up at the height. She has never ridden anything like this thing before, and hearing the mix of terrified screams and cheers of fun made her heart skip a beat. A cold sweat formed on the back of her neck as she tried to picture herself on the ride.

Suddenly Vanitas was in front of her, blocking her sight of the nightmare. She gasped for air, not realizing she had been holding her breath that whole time.

He looked up at the ride then at her. "We can try something simple first." Vanitas suggested looking at Sora and the others.

Aqua and the girls all agreed with him, while Roxas and Sora whined about the fact they wanted to ride the best ride first before the girls would force them onto the Ferris wheel.

"Vanitas is right, we should let Raven get used to the idea of how the rides work." Ven piped in making the other guys shut their whining.

Kairi walked over a smaller coaster that was in the shape of a dragon. Small children were mostly riding it but Raven could see the look of joy in their eyes as they rode around in circles and up a small hill. "Let's try this one first."

"I don't all of us should go on." Riku said joining the red head. "Just one or two of us can ride with Raven on this, then as she moves up in rides more of us can join."

"That way no one has to endure the pain of trying to ride the small rides." Namine finished for him.

Kairi nodded with a big smile, "Namine and I will go with Raven on this on. All of you boys are too tall to fit in the small boxes."

"I'll take Raven on the next ride." Sora offered with his hands behind his head.

Raven smiled softly as her chest grew warm. These people were so kind to her even though she told them about being the guardian of the Heartless. They seemed to accept her and were willing to teach her so much about how they lived life. She was seeing how life was supposed to be. So full of wonder and fun, all the things she missed out on.

All that was left was getting the wrist bands to go on the rides, which Riku and Vanitas argued about who was going to cover for Raven. So while they were fighting, the three girls tossed in a few bucks together and paid for the new addition to their group.

Raven laughed at the looks on Riku's and Vanitas' faces. The two who probably took care of her the most felt they had to take care of her all the time. But she was realizing that in a group of friends, everyone took turns some way or another.

Roxas took the band from the worker and put it on Raven, while Terra scolded thee care takers about fighting.

"There you go." Roxas smiled making sure it wasn't too tight nor too loose.

"Thank you." Raven replied studying the plastic band.

Roxas was like Sora but a lot lighter about everything. Sora's smiles and jokes were enlightening but they also felt a little forceful for Raven. Roxas was gentler with his smile and jokes, making Raven feel more comfortable around him.

Namine and Kairi stood in line with Raven to get on the small coaster, while everyone else hung back to watch.

"Vanitas, you don't need to film this!" Namine snapped catching the dark man with his phone out.

"She needs to see the stupid faces she makes." He teased with a smug look in his amber eyes.

"It's more to mark the moment." Ven assured the blonde girl.

Soon Raven was pulling the bar to her lap. Her knees were pressed down in an awkward way but she felt better when she saw Kairi and Namine were stuck just like her.

"Are you feeling alright?" Namine asked from behind Raven.

She nodded, "Yes. My heart is racing is all."

The ride jolted forward, making Raven cling to the bar in front of her. The clicking of the wheels and the dull sound of the motor were mostly covered by the small kids around her getting ready for the small hill that was coming up.

Going up the hill was just fine but the small drop sent Raven's heart into her throat along with her stomach. Kairi noticed right away and covered her hand with her own. Raven looked at her and saw the soft and caring look in those blue eyes that it helped her calm down.

Though the gesture had calmed her mind, once off the ride her stomach proved how upset with the odd motion it was. Because she sent a good couple minutes bending over a trash bin.

Aqua was the one rubbing her back and holding the hair out of the way, while everyone else gave her some space.

"Are you feeling any better?" Aqua asked once Raven lifted her head.

Raven was paler than normal, her eyes were watering from throwing up but she managed to smile. "The ride was fun, I guess my stomach didn't like it too much."

Vanitas came over with a bottle of water and napkins. Which Raven took and cleaned up the best she could with. The water mostly got rid of the taste of acid from her mouth but not the feeling it left behind.

"Do you want to try other rides?" He asked tucking a stray hair of hers behind her ear.

Heat rushed to her cheeks and showed, everyone pretended not to notice.

"Anything you want to do next until you're ready for the next ride?" Ven asked.

Raven looked at all the booths, filled with games and prizes. "Can we try some games?" She questioned only to see Vanitas and Riku playing some strange game with their hands, saying shoot before forming a fist or holding out two fingers.

"Don't worry about them." Terra laughed as he and the others showed her the games.

"Which one you want to try?" Sora asked the newbie.

Red eyes trailed along all the games, trying to find one to play.

Each game had different prizes but Raven wasn't sure what kind of prize she wanted, let alone what she was able to do. She walked up and down the booths a few times trying to take in all the prizes at once until her eyes landed on a silver fox plush at the balloon popping booth.

"This one." Pointing out the fox to her new friends.

Roxas went up to the man running the booth and asked a couple of questions then came back. "She had to pick the grand prize." He stated with a small sigh. "All the balloons have a little tag under them, you have to spell prize with the tags in order to win it. Five darts, five balloons."

Raven puffed her cheeks some, "I can win." She replied simply.

"We'll all give it a try, right you guys?" Sora added with a big grin.

There was only room for four people at the booth at a time. All the girls went first along with Roxas. They counted down from three before throwing the darts. The results were not the winning kind. They had gotten mostly 'p's, a couple 'r's and 'z's but somehow failed to get any 'I's or 'e's.

"Our turn." Ven and Vanitas said together.

Sora, Riku, Ven and Vanitas gave their money to the worker before getting their darts.

Minutes later the results were the same.

"This game is rigged!" Vanitas snapped crossing his arms.

Raven's eyes were getting a bit watery, while Roxas and Kairi tried to cheer her up.

"You guys, I haven't gone yet." Terra piped up finally.

Everyone was quiet as he handed his money over. The world slowed down, while he paced the booth a couple of times before throwing the first dart.

"It's a 'z'." The game runner announced since Terra told him to check.

Terra did the whole pacing thing again, repeating the process four more times.

"The last letter is 'I'." The runner said with a smile. "You managed to spell 'prize'."

Everyone let out the breath they were holding and let out a cheer, while Raven remained frozen until Terra was holding the stuffed fox in front of her nose.

"You wanted it, and to mark the occasion." He smiled grew bigger as a large smile form on her face.

"Thank you!" She squealed taking it into her arms and nuzzling it.

"Are you ready for another ride?" Ven asked the over joyed young woman.

She stopped for a moment. "Not yet, since I can't take him on the rides with me. Can we look at that?" Her hand flew out and pointed at the haunted house.

"She would want to go in there." Riku muttered with a sigh.

Everyone has heard about Raven's obsession with horror movies, so it wasn't surprising that she wanted to go into a haunted house attraction.

"Alright." Everyone else replied in unison.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Inside the haunted house was confusing, because it was also part hall of mirrors. Whenever there wasn't any themed areas, it was a maze of mirrors, which Raven kept running into. They had gone in groups of five, since that's all they were allowed at a time.

"Are you lost?" A voice rang.

Raven had somehow managed to either fall behind or run ahead of her group and was stuck in the maze.

Everywhere she looked, she only hundreds of herself. She could hear the sounds of fake thunder and screams, mixed with real screams.

Her heart started to race, "who's there?" She called trying to stay calm.

Drags appeared beside her, but soon a strange white and gray creature appeared from the mirror.

"What is that?!" She cried out backing into a mirror.

In a single mirror a young man with white hair and black eyes dressed in white and gray appeared. He was only in the glass in front of Raven.

"Who are you?" She breathed amazed to find him in the glass.

She had to touch the cool surface to check that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her.

"The biggest Nobody around." He replied giving a shoo gesture. She backed up again and watched as he stepped out of mirror like it was a door. "I'm like you, only the Guardian of Nobodies."

The feeling of excitement washed over her body. She had never met a nobody, let alone known there was a guardian of them. Now he was right in front of her and actually really handsome.

"I'm Raven." She held out her hand, while one arm clung to her new fox plush.

He smiled some, "I know." He replied tucking his hands into his pocket. "I'm Shiro, but if you had to write it out, it's with an X."

She gave a confused look, as he fogged up and mirror and wrote the word 'Shiro' on the surface before adding 'Xiro' under it.

"See with an 'X'." He explained with half lidded eyes. "Now, how about I show you some real fun."

"Raven!" Her friends were calling for her. Trying to find.

"I can't, my friends." She started but the young man took her hand in his.

It was a perfect fit, like it was meant to be there. Her heart skipped a beat as he pulled her to the small hallway that the workers used to get around.

The calling of her name became more distant while Xiro lead her through the halls until they came to a door marked 'Exit'. The fresh ocean air was much better compared to the stuffy, fogged air of the haunted house.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked unsure of how to react to this.

He gave a sly smile. "You'll see. You'll love it!"

She nodded tightening her grip on his hand, to make sure she wouldn't lose him somehow.

XXXXXXXXX

The music was loud, the whole place was dark even with flashing lights, and everyone was crowded together moving to the music.

Uncertainty filled her chest as she tried to stay close to Xiro. He snagged a couple of drinks from a tray and handed on to her. With how loud the music was, she couldn't make out any words he said to her until his lips were to her ear.

"Summon some Heartless." He ordered with some strange darkness to his voice.

Looking around, she wasn't sure it was possible with how cramped the space was. But in the back of her mind she could hear all the Heartless in the darkness calling to get some hearts. How could she reject their nature? She was the one who told them when to steal hearts and she hasn't let them in a couple of weeks.

"Don't deny them, they are your family aren't they?" Xiro's voice rang.

He was right. Raven couldn't keep the Heartless chained forever. Sooner or later it would back lash onto her. So she did what she did best, called the Heartless to her side to steal the hearts of humans.

Screams of terror filled her ears as everyone in the club realized that monsters were appearing, but it was too cramped for too many of them to get away fast enough. She watched as they stole the hearts and make cries of joy.

Something washed over her, like something had lifted off her shoulders. Soon she threw her hands in the air and sang for the Heartless to keep up their reign of terror. She danced about to the music of her heart and her creatures of darkness that sang their own tunes as they stole the remaining hearts.

Soon darkness washed over the husks of the people and transformed them into different kinds of Nobodies. Xiro joined Raven in her dance when this started to happen.

Now Raven remembered, Heartless took hearts, the bodies turned into nobodies. Without her Xiro was nothing. But she needed to be reminded about who she was on the inside. She wasn't a normal human.

"You are the main Guardian of Darkness!" Xiro exclaimed taking her into his arms. "Without you the Darkness would cave under the Light."

He brushed her braids back.

Then there was an odd pull before her hair fell loose around her shoulders. Her eyes went wide as her hands reached up and touched her hair. Her gaze slide from his face to his hand; in it was a knife that had several strands of hair on it still.

"Forget about your time with those humans, you'll only hurt them." He explained as the world became quiet around them.

"No, I like them." She replied balling her hands up.

"You're nothing like them. You and I are immortal!" He snapped before gesturing around them. "Look at what you do, then I use my nobodies to scare more humans into places for your heartless to prey on!"

She tried to shake her head but he was right. Somehow in a matter of a few days she had let everyone let her forget who she was. She was meant to wreak havoc across the lands.

"Raven!" Vanitas came out of the darkness, a few Unversed with him.

"Unversed." Xiro growled before making all of his nobodies vanish.

"Vanitas?" Raven questioned as everything sunk in.

Xiro took her hands in both of his. "Don't listen to anything he as to say. He's a traitor to our kind."

Brows knitted together as Raven tried to figure out what he meant.

"Shut up!" Vanitas snapped pulling Raven away from Xiro. "She doesn't have to follow the old ways. Time are changing and so can we!"

"What is he talking about, Vanitas?" She looked up at the dark man.

He scowled before looking at her with softer eyes. "I'm the Guardian of Unversed. Only I can't create as many unless feeling great negative emotions. Ventus also has to have some going on because we balance one another out. But after meeting Terra, Aqua and the rest of them life wasn't as bad so we kept it that way." He explained. "The world doesn't need Unversed to survive, it doesn't need a great amount of Heartless and Nobodies either. They can start to dwindle down."

Xiro roared in anger before charging at Vanitas, who shoved Raven out of the way.

She looked at the fight before her as well as feeling the conflict that was going on in her head. Both were right but which path was for her?

"She can't leave the Darkness, it'll kill her!" Xiro growled before punching Vanitas.

"What do you know about her past?" Vanitas snapped blocking a couple of blows.

Raven tried to remember how she became this way. Taken over by the Darkness but nothing came to mind. Her memories were spacy from how much time she spent hiding in the world of Darkness.

"She was on the brink of death when the Darkness transformed her!" Xiro said taking Vanitas' feet out from under him.

Death? That idea felt so far off, like it could never happen. She didn't get how she could have been on the edge of life and death when she was taken in by the power granted by letting darkness into your heart. Nothing was making sense, nothing was fitting together like it should.

Her chest started to hurt along with her head. Black dots started to form in her vision as it became too hard to breathe. Her hands grabbed at her chest and neck as she fought to get air in her lungs but it was a losing battle.

Everything went numb, the world silent as the darkness took over her vision before she dropped off into nothingness.


	5. Chapter 5

_"Xiro, is forever possible?" Her voice rang in the night filled room._

 _A small smile formed on his face as he pulled her closer. "We're immortal, anything is possible for us."_

 _He didn't need to open his eyes to know that her red eyes were giving his a look of disbelief. He simply ran his fingers through her curly hair and planted a kiss on her forehead._

 _"I'm only asking because forever together as a family would probably be the best thing to happen." Her words caused his dark eyes to fly open and look at her with plate sized eyes._

 _"What?" He asked softly._

 _A bright smile formed on her lovely lips as she nodded. "Yeah."_

 _Memories of joy filled his chest as he planted more kisses on her face. Something he had thought impossible was happening. He was never letting this wonderful woman go. She was his everything._

 _XXXXXXXXXX_

 _"Somethings wrong!" She cried out weeks later in the night._

 _Xiro rushed to her side. "What happened?"_

 _"I went to that crazy world to get that Queen's heart. The Heartless wanted it so bad…." She tried to explain but a wave of pain stole her voice._

 _"Please tell me you're alright!" He demanded taking her face in his hands, before his eyes found her hands holding her side._

 _He pulled them away and found a large cut from her side to nearly the middle of her stomach. Dread filled him as she suddenly became paler and her eyes hazed over. He caught her in his arms._

 _"Why isn't the Darkness healing you?" He asked himself holding her as close as possible._

 _Swirls of Darkness formed around her body, and before he could protest she was removed from his embrace._

 _"You can't take her away!" He shouted before starting to throw things around the small place they had called home._

 _XXXXXXXXXX_

 _There was an unsteady beeping sound, mixed with small whispers when she opened her eyes a young boy with white hair sat on the side of her bed._

 _"How are you feeling today?" He asked softly._

 _"Better, but Doctor said I have to stay in bed still." She whispered._

 _He frowned for a moment before jumping off the bed and bring a book over from her shelf. "Then, I'll spend the day reading to you!"_

 _"You don't have to do that." She carefully pulled herself into a sitting position._

 _His bright eyes lightened the cold feeling in her body. "I want to."_

XXXXXXXXXXX

"What happened?" Xiro yelled releasing Vanitas and taking hold of Raven.

"More like what did you do?!" Vanitas accused.

Xiro's dark eyes glared into the amber colored ones, showing that he truly had no idea what was going on.

"Unlike a normal Heartless Guardian she got to keep her heart." Xiro explained suddenly. "I'm not sure if it was because of her fragile health from when she was human or what but something seemed to cause her heart to react."

While Xiro tended to Raven Vanitas sent several text messages to his friends before finding a piece of a broken chair.

Taking it into his hand, he approached the Nobody Guardian from behind before taking a good swing to knock him out.

"Tch." Vanitas growled dragging Xiro off of Raven. "You shouldn't just share random information."

He picked up Raven in his arms before using the Corridor of Darkness to go back to his friends, who were all worried about Raven.

"Is she alright?" Kairi asked him once he stepped out of the corridor.

He shrugged the best he could. "Namine, could you check out her hearts memories?" He asked looking at the blonde girl.

She looked unsure about it before taking in all of Raven's appearance. "Yes, I can do that when we get back to Riku's."

XXXXXXXX

Namine sat beside Raven's bed side while drawing in her art book. She didn't go for anything detailed, just quick and simple ones for now. There wasn't as many as there should have been. Worry filled her heart when she realized that Raven only had about a year's worth of memories.

A soft knock came from the door way, pulling Namine out of her haze. "What's wrong?" Roxas asked leaning on the door way.

He could always read her the best out of all their friends. She clung to her art book, trying to find the right words to tell him about Raven's odd condition because she knows she never touched Raven's memories, so there shouldn't be any missing.

"She's only got a year's worth of memory." She said finally.

He frowned as his brain tried to take in this news. "Okay, are you sure they aren't locked away?"

Namine shrugged gently. "I don't know, it seems like something happened to cause her to loss all of her memories."

The blonde man didn't say anything just came and took the woman into his arms as she tried to figure things out. None of it made sense yet somehow seemed normal.

"Aqua is making some food, you should eat." He said after a while.

She nodded and got up. Leaving her art book beside Raven.

XXXXXXXXX

Everyone sat around in Riku's living room, waiting for some sign that Raven was going to wake up. Without any paper work they couldn't take her to the hospital without strange questions being raised.

"This is too stressful." Sora groaned rubbing his head.

Kairi took his hand in hers. "All we can do is wait." She said softly.

He leaned his head on her shoulder while Riku paced the hallway outside the living room.

No one had been able to get him to sit down for more than a couple minutes at a time, even then he bounced his foot up and down in an annoying fashion that pacing was better than tapping.

"Namine is working on Raven's memories more, but it would seem that Raven only has a year's worth." Roxas explained coming down from upstairs.

After eating dinner, Namine had set back to work trying to dig deeper into the Guardian's heart to get more memories from it. She would call them up if she found anything out.

"Why is this so hard?" Ven asked looking at Vanitas, who sat in the bay window looking at the nighttime sky.

"She's kinda like us." Was the dark man's answer.

He didn't have to explain how Raven was like them. She was lost and they all found her and took her in. She was kind and bright even though there was a darkness to her light. She was a simple person to be around even though you hardly knew anything about her.

"Let's just hope she's okay." Aqua had the most hope in her voice out of everyone in the room.


	6. Chapter 6

Raven's room had become littered by Namine's drawings, the walls, the floor, even Raven herself was covered in them. Namine had finally make a small break in Raven's memories, uncovering some of Raven's old memories. It took pages and pages of all black, until small details came out of it.

Riku opened the door, shocked to find the young woman there. "You're still here?" He asked picking up some of the drawings.

"Yeah, I finally got something more than darkness from her memories finally." She replied not looking up from the newest drawing she was working on.

His pale eyes drifted over Raven, who was covered in the paper. Her breathing was swallow but peaceful. He wanted her to wake up, tell them everything was alright and then tell them everything she could about that Xiro guy.

Suddenly a Corridor of Darkness opened right in the middle of the room.

Riku summoned his keyblade, while Namine shielded Raven's body. A female looking like Raven stepped through and closed it. Everything about her looked like Raven, only without the red streaks in the hair, and the length was different.

"You need to stop digging into her past." She said with a hard voice.

Riku and Namine tried to place what else was off about the girl, her outfit was different compared to Raven's. Her hair was less curly, only fell to her waist but there was something about her face, her eyes….

"She has purple eyes." Namine stated suddenly.

Raven's eyes were red.

Who was this girl?

"Why should we stop looking into Raven's memories?" Riku asked holding Way to Dawn in a way that said he would attack if he didn't like the answer.

The girl frowned and without second thought, disarmed Riku and planted her knee into his gut several times before letting him fall to the floor. "Do not question me. All you need to know is that Raven is in danger if you bring up her memories from her beginnings."

"Then tell us about that Xiro guy, if you know so much!" Namine exclaimed showing a picture of Raven and Xiro in a romantic embrace.

The girl walked over and sat on the other side of Raven.

"He always like her hair short. Our parents kept it short because of her weak heart." She explained softly, her hand playing with Raven's hair. "Xiro was our neighbor, who loved Raven and came over every day to keep her company. She loved him being there, reading books to her and playing board games.

"The only thing wrong was the fact Raven was dying and there was no stopping it. Until the night Darkness tried to take over Destiny Islands for the first time, only to fail but it left its mark on my sister. Giving my sister a second chance at life, but not the way everyone intended.

"It took a whole week before Raven fully gave into the Darkness. I watched as she changed. Xiro was there too and lost his heart to her. Becoming a Nobody, only because of how powerful he had been with her around, he became like my sister. Then together, Raven took our hearts and Xiro made us into Nobodies." Her purple eyes drifted over the images on the floor.

"You're her sister?" Namine asked looking at the girl.

She nodded, "Her older sister. I'm the reason why her memories are torn apart. Every time she's close to death as a Guardian, I restart everything for her memories – a blank slate to prevent everything from going haywire, because she nearly killed an entire world when she realized what she had done to us." She sighed before standing up. "Xiro is the one that keeps me away, killed the rest of our family."

She raised a hand and opened another Corridor of Darkness, "I must go now before he realizes I split passed his watch."

Before Namine could stop her, she got away.

"Dammit, she knew how to hit." Riku groaned sitting up holding his stomach.

"Riku!" Namine called going over to him. "Sorry, I didn't check on you beforehand."

He grunted some but nodded, "It's okay, you made sure Raven was safe."

Namine helped him to his feet.

"You guys, what happened to my room?" Raven's voice asked.

The world slowed down, nearly stopping for a moment as they turned to see Raven sitting up in bed, carefully stacking the drawings.

"You're a wake." They said together.

She blinked at them then realized something as she ran a hand over her head. "Who cut my hair?!"

XXXXXXXXX

They filled Raven in on everything they felt was right, Xiro showing up at the haunted house, to what they did in the dance club not far from the pier. Raven looked horrified by it all but didn't apologize.

"So, my nature is what make me a bad person?" She asked softly as Drags appeared and snuggled into her arms. "What about Namine's odd ability to go into people's memories? She could do it anyone she wanted."

Both knew she had a point but at the same time Raven should know that what she had done was wrong. Riku got up from the floor and sat on the bed with Namine's help.

"But I don't unless it's really needed." Namine explained as she gathered some of the drawings.

Raven looked around some, feeling Riku's never leaving gaze on her no matter what she did. She played with her hands some before running her hands through her now short hair. Heat was dancing across her body as she tried to cover her head with her blankets.

"What?!" She snapped finally meeting his pale eyes with her red ones.

He narrowed his eyes some, "do you feel any regret for what you did?" He questioned.

Her chest tightened. "A little bit, but only because I shouldn't have let the Heartless take that many hearts at once! It's one thing when it's a few at a time to keep them happy but what happened means I lost myself."

Both friends looked confused at each other before looking back at her. Raven's eyes brimmed with tears.

"What do you mean you lost yourself?" Namine asked taking Raven's hand.

"That's why this happens." Raven held up the black draws. "I lost myself and the Darkness took over to create more Heartless and Nobodies."

Some things made more sense. Namine took all the drawings from Raven, gently. "I can explain some of these to you if you want me to."

Raven shook her head, "no, I recall most of these moments now that I can see them on paper."

"So you regret some of what you did but not all of it?" Riku asked getting back on topic.

"That is my job as the Guardian of the Heartless, to make sure they take some Hearts but not a whole lot, as well as protect them the best I can from those with Keyblades. If that bothers you maybe I should leave, because I know you still don't trust me, Riku."

He flinched when Namine gave him a look that said she agreed with Raven.

"You can have everything you bought for me back, and I'll vanish and never show my face again." Raven threw the blankets of herself and started to get up.

She didn't get very far, because as soon as she stood up her legs gave out from under her. Her nose got smashed into the floor. She let out a small groan of pain before pushing herself up with her arms.

"Are you alright?" Namine asked kneeling down beside her.

Raven looked at Namine, "I'm fine." Only blood started to drip from her nose.

Riku sighed and picked up the Guardian, taking her into the bathroom to clean up her nose.

"You don't have to do that!" Raven snapped trying to stop him from nursing her.

He growled some before taking both her hands in one of his. "I want to. You are not leaving this house." He explained. "I agreed to take care of you and I will. You're part of this family even if you hide in your room most of the time and annoy me. You're like a little sister."

Namine stood in the doorway and gasped at his words. Raven's sister had only been there moments before Raven had woken up. Was Riku trying to hint to her without using Namine's powers or was he being genuine about Raven feeling like a little sister to him?

Raven gave up in a fight with Riku and let him press the toilet paper to her nose and pinching it some before making her lean forward.

"We'll get your hair fixed too, if you want." He said running one hand through her hair. "That way it doesn't look so butchered."

She pressed the top of her head to his chest and gripped some of his shirt in her hand. "Xiro and I used to be together, I think that's why he was so obsessed with getting me back."

"What else happened between you two to make him like this?" He asked feeling her tears dropping onto his arm.

Raven's grip tightened, "A lot of things…. We were going to be a family. We're immortal, didn't think it was possible. Then it did…. Then the Heartless were acting strange and really wanted the Heart that belonged some Queen in a crazy world. Her card like guards got me with their spear…. The child didn't make it and the Darkness took me and hide me away to recover properly. That's were my memories stop."

Both took in her words before Raven let out a sob.

"Do you know anything else?" Riku asked.

Raven shook her head before looking up at him. "I don't even have a scar from the attack." She whispered. "So, I have nothing to remember the child by."

Namine went back to Raven's room and gathered all the drawings before sorting through them all. She found one where Raven was holding her stomach like a pregnant woman would, only there was no baby bump to tell she was.

At first the picture had meant nothing to Namine, because it was confusing but now it all made sense. Raven was going to be a mother but something in the Heartless changed with her, and then she lost it all because they were upset somehow.

She pulled out her phone and called Vanitas.

"Yo." He sounded like he just woke up himself.

"Get out of that stranger's bed and come here." She ordered right away. "I have something I have to ask you a few questions regarding with being a Guardian."

He scoffed at her but she could hear that he was getting out of the bed, a girl complaining about his leaving in the background. "Okay….."

"She's awake and telling us about her past more, parts that made no sense in the images that I drew."

Vanitas didn't say anything only hung up.

XXXXXXXX

Raven looked surprised to see Vanitas show up. Namine had given Raven the pictures that meant the most to her, hanging them on the walls around her bed.

"Namine said you were awake." He stated coming in and looking at the pictures.

He noticed one sat on the bedside table, one of her holding her stomach with a beautiful smile. His gold eyes slid off the paper and looked at her.

"I have some memories back, mostly ones about Xiro." She replied softly picking up the art work.

He sat on the bed side. "You can talk about anything if you want."

She shook her head some. "No, that's Riku's job as big brother." She explained with a soft smile.

He messed up her hair some. "Okay."

"There you are." Namine scolded coming into the room finding the dark haired man there. "Can you come into the other room so I can talk to you?"

He nodded and followed her out of the room as Raven turned on a horror movie.

He walked into Riku's room where the two sat.

"What's going on?" Vanitas asked looking a bit confused.

"Can Guardians have kids?" Riku came out with.

This got a strange look from the golden eye man, but he shrugged. "In the time of being a guardian I have never heard of anything like that happening. Most of the Guardians are male, Raven's the only female I've heard about."

"Well, she and Xiro almost had one, before we meet her." Riku stated crossing his arms.

"That was a little over a year ago." Namine added, "Then the Heartless started to act strange and really wanted her took take the Heart of some Queen of another world."

Vanitas put a finger on his chine, "it's possible that since Heartless and Nobodies are counterparts. It's possible they could have a kid that shares certain abilities as their parents."

"Okay, but how do we stop Xiro from trying to take Raven back?" Namine asked wanting her new friend to be safe.

Riku and Vanitas both knew it was probably impossible to keep Xiro away from Raven. He wanted her back and most likely for the reason they were so close to having a family. He probably wanted to try that again.

"We don't." Raven said from the door way.

They all turned and looked shocked to see her there.

She stepped in, "I couldn't help but want to know what you were talking about." She confessed, "I know it was wrong but something in me couldn't keep away."

They all shrugged, "It was about you, so you had the right to know." Vanitas stated walking over to her.

Riku nodded as Namine smiled at Raven.

"So, what kind of plan do you have for keeping Xiro at bay?" He asked messing up Raven's hair some.

She pouted as he did so but looked up at him, "We don't keep him away, we let him come. There's no stopping him once he as a goal in mind."

"So, let's just make sure he can't get the goal." Riku answered and got a sly smile from Vanitas.

"Vanitas, he doesn't mean that!" Namine snapped.

Raven frowned confused about what they were now talking about. Everything seemed to switch topic on her and she wasn't keeping up. Like making a boat captain drive a train.

Riku picked up what Vanitas' brain waves were emitting. "Not happening." He warned pulling on the Unversed Guardian's hood.

Making a light gagging sound Vanitas looked at Riku with an innocent look. "What? I just wanted to see if Raven would like to out to dinner with me."

"No." Riku and Namine stated together firmly.

"Why not?" Raven and Vanitas asked at the same time.

Riku and Namine both face palmed because Raven was asking out of innocence, while Vanitas was doing it as a challenge. It was would be impossible to come up with an answer to both questions.

"See, she agrees with me!" Vanitas exclaimed.

"She doesn't even know what you're talking about!" Namine shot back.

Riku walked over to Raven, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Look, just understand that a date with Vanitas isn't a good idea right now. Xiro might hurt him, and I don't think you want that." He explained to her. "Now, please go to your room so I can answer Vanitas' half of the question."

Raven thought about it before nodding and heading off into her room. She started to watch regular TV instead of a horror movie this time. Since she was almost done with Riku's collection of horror films. She had to get her hands on more soon.

XXXXXXXXX

A couple hours later Namine went home and Riku had Raven get ready to go out.

"Where are we going?" She asked getting into the car.

He smiled softly, "to get your hair fixed."

Raven wasn't sure how to take this news but she nodded and watched out the window as he drove into the downtown area.

The sky was starting to take on an orange tint as the sun started to set, but Raven only smiled. She enjoyed this bright color, it was a welcoming and warm color that made her feel like leaving the darkness was a good idea in the end.

"Do you recall ever getting your hair done before?" Riku asked looking for a parking spot.

Raven shook her head, "No, I don't."

All the people walking around the square caught her attention, so many families were together. Though in her mind she knew this was how her life was supposed to be, it didn't feel like something was missing. She looked over at Riku, who held a worried look in his eye.

"I'm fine." She told him before getting out of the car.


	7. Chapter 7

Vanitas was getting ready for the big night, or at least party night. Finals have come and passed and no one had nothing to worry about. Now they were having a party at Riku's place, since it was biggest of the house and had the yard space for it all.

"You do realize that you have to remember that Raven is very different from the other girls you spend time with, right?" Ventus asked the Dark man as they both crammed into the small bathroom to do their hair.

Vanitas sighed before doing his usual messy spike look. "Yes, she's more fragile compared to the girls I sleep around this. She's not just some weird thing I want to conquer." His gold eyes holding some emotion in them that Ventus had never seen in his old friend.

Putting a hand on Vanitas' shoulder he gave a warm smile. One that told his friend that he had his back and understood him. Both knew this was going to be a good night, one way or another.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Raven looked in the mirror has Aqua stood behind her, curling her hair with a curling iron. "This should help tame those curls of yours." She smiled meeting Raven's nervous eyes in the reflective glass.

Looking down at her outfit, Raven wasn't sure about tonight. It was a simple red dress that Kairi bought for her. It stopped above her knees and was thin strapped and it wasn't the amount of skin that was showing that bothered her, it was the fact this was supposed to be something called a date.

"He will love the outfit." Aqua assured her, pulling certain curls from around Raven's face back and pinning them. "He's not too picky about how you look."

"I hardly know him." Raven explained wiping her hands on the skirt.

Aqua felt like a mother explaining dating to her daughter, something she was actually looking forward to in the future. Raven was probably the best practice for her. Placing both hands on Raven's shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze.

"That's what dates are about, getting to know each other." She explained fluffing the curls around Raven's shoulder.

The new shorter hair looked much better on Raven than the overly long hair she had before. It was also much softer, though the curls had become much wilder. The stylist had changed Raven's part from being way over on the right side, to in the middle with her bangs framing her face. The red streaks somehow remained, but they looked nice in the purple-black hair.

"What if he doesn't like what's on the inside?" Raven asked suddenly.

Aqua let out a small laugh, "Raven, you are an open book. We all can tell how kind you are, even though you are the Heartless Guardian. Though you do have a lot to relearn about life, that's okay." Raven's eyes saddened some at these words.

"Then why do I feel like I'm hurting Xiro?"

Aqua wasn't sure how to answer that, "I'm not sure about that one. It could be because you remember your past with him. The fact you almost had a family with him as well, so you two were very close."

Certain memories flashed through Raven's mind. His reaction when she told him about the baby, he had been so happy about it all. The kisses they shared along with the nights and days they spent in bed together just because they could. They were happy memories but they caused an ache in her chest that she wasn't sure of. Was this a good ache or bad?

"Am I doing the right thing? Going on this date?" Raven asked as Aqua turned off the curling iron.

Aqua held a thoughtful look in her light blue eyes, "that's up to you. You could have said no but you said yes. So some part of you is ready to do this."

Raven nodded understanding what she was saying.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Several Bluetooth speakers were set throughout Riku's house to ensure the music played could be heard in all the rooms. Everyone was crowded together, dancing, talking, drinking and basically doing what normal college kids did.

Some couples were making out, nearly tearing each other's clothes off in view of everyone there, while some idiots played drinking games that only made them sick. All of these people made Xiro's stomach twist in rage. He wanted them all gone, all of them but Raven.

"Hey, you're good looking." A brown haired girl with green eyes stated with a drunk smile.

"That I am, but I have someone else in mind." He replied coolly before stalking off to find Raven.

It hadn't taken him long to figure out whose house this was and why she was living here. He did not like this Riku guy but Vanitas was the one that really got under his skin. Mostly because he was there the night he tried to take Raven back. He wanted her heart belonging to him alone, but Vanitas was the one to take her away from him.

"Vanitas is on a date with some stupid looking girl." A young woman whined her friends.

Xiro stopped and listened, Vanitas was on a date?

"Her dress is amazing though." Another commented.

The lead one scoffed, "the ditz couldn't figure out how to get beer from the keg."

The girls kept laughing and bashing on the girl, who Vanitas was with. Xiro wasn't sure who the girl was but the sound of these girl's made him wonder why Vanitas was capturing the heart of so many women without even trying.

"He'll sleep with me by the end of the night, I just know it." The leader stated before they went out back to the fire.

Xiro continued his search for Raven. He knew he would find her at some point in the night. The only issue was he hadn't seen any of the fools that hung around her.

XXXXXXXXXX

"So, I know you like horror movies." Vanitas started off on the back deck.

Beer in his hand as they were leaning of the railing, looking at the clear night sky.

Raven nodded, "I've almost finished the movies Riku has." She replied slowly stirring her beer, though she hadn't touched it.

"He's got a decent collection, but I got better stuff. I'll bring some over one night and we'll watch them together." Vanitas rested his elbows on the rail tilting his head back more.

Raven looked at him with stars in her eyes, "You really have better stuff? I thought Riku had great movies!" Her arms started to bounce up and down like crazy, slopping the beer all over.

Vanitas started to laugh when she realized what she had done - ruining the new dress she was wearing. "How about you go to your room and change, I'll clean this up," he said taking her hand in his and leading her back into the house.

She nodded though tears brimmed her eyes because Kairi had spent so much time in between studying and classes looking for this dress for her. Now it was ruined because she got all excited about a few movies.

Looking through her closet for something to wear, though she still didn't have a lot to pick from. Grabbing a black shirt and her black jeans, she found the red belt Sora had found for her at the mall a few days ago. It had a heart for the buckle but she liked it either way.

An all-black outfit with the red belt actually looked better than the red dress did. Plus the shirt had kinda long sleeves with a wide neck. She looked in the mirror for a moment, trying to figure if she should leave her hair or not.

She finally pulled the bobby pins out and shook her curls until they regained their wild look. It had helped that the lady who cut her hair had added something called layers to her hair. But nothing less she did seemed to make the thickness die down.

"Did you die in there?" Vanitas knocked on the door.

She went over and opened the door. She had yet to put on shoes again but his amber eyes looked her over.

"That looks better on you." He remarked with a sly smile.

She simply smiled before going over to the end of her bed and pulling on the heeled boots Namine had given her. Namine was given them as a present but they weren't her type of boot, called them hooker boots even if they stopped below the knee.

"I feel better." She stomped her feet a couple of times, taking in the clicking sound the heels made on the hard wood floor.

As soon as they got back downstairs, a group of girls ambushed them. Mostly Vanitas as one with honey colored hair threw her arms around his neck, planting a couple of kisses on his cheek.

"Vanitas, what are you doing with such a clueless girl?" She purred loud enough for Raven to hear.

Raven tensed while Vanitas looked nervous.

"Looks, I'm trying to look for something serious for once." Vanitas stated with an unimpressed look in his eyes.

Raven looked at him with wonder, something in her moved at his words.

The girl in Vanitas' arms did not like that statement. "You can have something serious with me, and you'll get treated well every night."

"Something serious it not about having great sex all the time. It's about taking the each other's wants and needs of life into thought and adding them into yours and growing together. Raven has a few things I realize that I need in life and I'm hoping to have something she needs out of life. Not that you would understand any of that." Vanitas explained looking at Raven the entire time.

Warm tears managed to slip down her cheeks as she looked at the man before her. Something told her that Xiro had never been like this with her. Showing her a new side of him she had never seen before. She wiped off the tears quickly.

"Yes." Was all she managed to say before she was pulled off the stairs.

"She's nothing compared to me!" The honey haired woman yelled, pulling Raven so that she tripped and started to fall down the stairs.

Raven let the fall finish, but only because she knew how to curl into ball before getting too injured. Once she was at the bottom, Vanitas was there helping her to her feet.

"You're not too hurt are you?" He asked softly as hair fell into her face.

She shook her head, "I'm fine."

The girls held looks of shock because of how quickly Raven got up. "Mandy, I don't think a fight with her is a good idea." One of her friends advised softly.

The Mandy girl didn't seem to hear because she went and smacked Raven across the face. The slap so loud it caught the attention of a few people in the area. Causing some of the chatter in the room to stop.

"What can you do to me?" Mandy asked with a hard look in her brown eyes.

Raven's eyes turned emotionless. "Kill you."

This broke Mandy's walls, no one saw that reply coming.

"Like you could get away with killing me." Mandy choked out trying to keep her cool.

Raven reached behind her and pulled out both her fans and handed them to Vanitas. "No weapons, just a normal hand to hand fight. I'm sure I could beat you to an inch of your miserable life in a matter of seconds."

"Those are metal fans." Someone pointed out.

Mandy's eyes searched the room for someone who would prove she was the worth one of Vanitas' affection but Raven's deadly words alone were scaring even the biggest guys in the room. How was that possible? How could such a small woman hold so much power over a room with just her words?

No, it wasn't words alone. Mandy could see that now. Raven carried herself in a manner that showed how serious she was. Her eyes had no emotion in them, yet they shone with a power that wasn't just words or physical.

"P-prove it then." Mandy managed finally.

Latching onto her forearm, Raven's fingernails dug into Mandy's baby soft skin before the floor was gone from under her. She found herself airborne before smashing into the floor several feet away.

"Raven!" Vanitas scolded suddenly taking hold of Raven's arm.

"She asked for it!" Raven snapped looking up at him.

The heels did nothing to close the height gap between the two of them but it wasn't height that was showing power here. It was oozing out of Raven, mostly because she was angry that someone was pushing her buttons.

Mandy's friends rushed to their friend's side and helped her up.

Once up, the honey haired woman charged at Raven, nails ready to dig into something. Raven tensed ready to throw a hit of her own, only with a fist, but someone caught her arm. While someone else completely cut off Mandy's course of action by throwing her over their shoulder.

"That's enough girls!" Riku barked with Mandy over his shoulder.

Vanitas had Raven's arm but she quickly finished her motion by turning it into a judo flip on him.

He gasped in pain but gave her a cheeky smile. "I get it, you're still pissed. I kinda asked for that!"

"Let me go!" Mandy yelled at Riku, grabbing his hair.

Only getting an annoyed look from the silver haired man, Mandy looked confused for a moment.

"Oookay, maybe Raven should finish the fight." He dropped Mandy without warning.

The whole room was thrown off by this statement from Riku.

Both girls froze in place trying to process the words. Both could figure out how all of this would turn out. Yet somehow, Riku's okay to fight killed the mood in both of them.

"I'm sorry." Raven whispered looking at Riku. "I've ruined your party…. You worked so hard in your classes and I ruined your party without thinking about anything else."

"Mandy here picked the fight from what I heard." Riku replied walking over and patting her head. "So, I'm not mad at you at all, upset that you got into a fight but no blame in on you for ruining the party."

Mandy got back to her feet looking stunned about all of this. "It's my fault?" She shirked like an angry cat.

"Yes, because you choose to pick a fight with someone you don't even know." Vanitas stated getting up from Raven's flip.

Shock filled Mandy's brown eyes but she kept herself together long enough to walk out the front door with her friends behind her.

XXXXXXXXX

Xiro heard there was a fight only once he got there it was over. Raven was there, standing between Vanitas and Riku. No way for him to get to her without some form of fight, and it would be one that he would lose because of numbers. He wasn't going to bring any Nobodies into the fight because they'd get taken out too quickly with all the Keyblade wielders here.

He growled before watching Raven give Vanitas a look of worry. Though the Unversed Guardian only smiled and tried to calm her down, she wasn't buying it.

The party went on, so Xiro used the cover of the crowd to watch Raven. He wanted her alone. All he wanted was to talk to her, maybe get her to come back to him with just words before he tried doing anything too drastic.

XXXXXXXXXX

Getting Raven alone for any span of time was impossible due to the fact Vanitas was always by her side and when he wasn't, Riku or someone else from the group was there with her. All the girls seemed to move together as a pack, but Raven looked so happy with them. Sharing jokes, talking about odds and ends about life, sometimes dates with boys.

"I can't get near her." Xiro growled trying to find his opening but suddenly the music in the house stopped.

"Alright, everyone clear out!" Terra called to the party folks. "Parties over, have a good rest of the night and be safe!"

Xiro cursed some while he took cover with the first wave of people leaving.

Tonight had a bad night to get to Raven, so he was going to have to find another time. But for all he knew she won't be alone too much now that her new friends knew about him. The chaos he had caused that one time was enough for them to know to keep him and Raven apart but it wouldn't last long.

"Her nature will bring her back to me." He reminded himself with an evil grin. "It always has."

XXXXXXXX

"This is a huge mess!" Raven complained once the entire house had been cleared out.

When the house was full of people it hadn't looked to dirty. Maybe a couple of cups or bottles laying around but nothing too bad. She learned the hard way that once everyone was gone, more cups, plates and other messes appeared out of nowhere.

"That's why we're staying the night to help clean." Sora explained handing her a black bag. "It gets done faster when we work together."

She saw Kairi and Namine working together to clean the back yard while Terra was putting out the fire. Aqua was in the kitchen cleaning up in there. Vanitas was given living room duty, Roxas was in the basement.

So she and Sora were stuck with the dining room while Riku was handling the bathrooms. Ventus was checking the bedrooms for anyone hiding before he covered the front yard.

Sora tossed a can, causing her to jump yet she managed to make sure it landed in the bag.

"Good catch." Sora laughed throwing a couple more cans and cups her way. "Keep up."

Raven nodded. She played the odd game of basket trash with Sora. Making the whole matter of cleaning much more fun than she thought it would be. She was all laughs and cheers when she catch the discard in her bag without doing too much to get it in. Sora was kinda mean by making her run around the room a bit though.

"So, you liked your small date?" He asked trying to break some ice.

Raven stopped and thought about it for a moment. "Had the fight did not happen it would have been great. But he promised to bring over some better horror movies for us to watch together."

"Yeah, he's got some of the really good stuff. If you don't get nightmares from his movies I'm going to think there's something seriously wrong with your brain." He joked.

Raven smiled, "But I'm the Guardian of Heartless, I'm where nightmares come from."

They both started to laugh a bit since it may as well been true with how her personality flipped like a light switch. Yet, she was nice to be around nothing too dark and scary yet not an over powering kindness that made you think she was fake.

"Raven, I hope you stay with us for a long time." He stated out of the blue.


	8. Chapter 8

A small break started after finals and the party, this gave everyone time to take Raven out to see the whole island. They had planned it as a camping trip, since it would take a couple of days to hike to some of the best places.

Raven wasn't completely sure about it all but it meant that they wouldn't be interacting with other people very much. All she knew about the trip was that at the end of it all they would camp on a special beach for a couple days before coming home for the rest of the break from college.

"How you holding up?" Vanitas asked walking beside her through the woods.

She shrugged, "It's odd that feels amazing to me. Like I never went camping before let alone into the woods." She explained.

It was true, her heart raced with both excitement and fear as they walked through the woods. She got to see all kinds of little creatures she had never seem before but she was also getting bitten by bugs. Besides all of that her sense were on overdrive from taking in the new sights, colors, smells and sounds that were created by the woodland.

He smiled softly before looking up at the tree tops. "We did this a lot in high school, because it was the easiest way to get away from our parents to do crazy things. One time we climbed a rock formation, the girls told us it would be a bad idea. They were right, Sora managed to fall and break his arm, but only because he tried to show off to Kairi."

Raven giggled some, "He sure loves her." She stated looking ahead of them at the two.

Sora was making goofy faces while holding the red head's hand. Kairi laughed and told him to stop because his face will get stuck.

Raven tried to remember if Xiro did anything like that to make her laugh, but there were still holes in her memories. She refused to ask Namine to help piece them back together, though she also had an uneasy feeling about getting any more memories back.

"Raven, come look at this!" Roxas called from off the path.

She gave a confused look before heading to where the young man was. He stood in the middle of a clearing full of flowers. The most amazing part about the clearing was that it was a perfect circle, and the flowers were arranged in a fashion that gave you room to walk through without treading on them.

"These have been here for a long time." Terra explained joining them.

Raven tilted her head some, before kneeling down to take in the scent of the flowers. It was a sweet and gentle smell that wasn't too strong. Staring at them she felt like she had seen and smelt them before.

A flash of being in a room with vases of these flowers went by.

 _"Since you can't go outside, we thought it would make you feel better to have some flowers in your room."_

She shook her head some, only for a small headache to form. She didn't understand the memory, she never had a room full of flowers.

"Are you okay?" Riku asked checking on her.

She nodded, "Yeah, just zoned out."

"This used to a garden for a family that lived a little further back into the woods." Aqua said picking a couple of the flowers and tucking them into the small braids in Raven's hair.

This peaked her interest. "What happened to the family?" She asked looking at the blue haired woman beside her.

Aqua's eyes grew a little sad, "They were all murdered one night during a big storm. Of course no one knew about it because of how far away they lived from town. But some family friends got worried when they hadn't heard from them in a couple of weeks, so they went to check on them. The house was in ruins and blood was everywhere. They never found the bodies."

Chills ran down Raven's back. The story sounded like a plot from a horror movie.

"We can check it out at the end of the trip." Vanitas threw in helping her up.

"Why can't we see it now?" She questioned since now she really wanted to see it.

He shrugged as his reply while his amber eyes drifted across their friends.

Namine had circled the clearing several times with her art book in hand, along with a pencil. Everyone noticed and watched a moment, Namine hardly noticed while she quickly drew in her book.

"Should we camp here?" Sora asked suddenly making the blonde woman jump.

"Maybe, we'll get to." Vanitas smirked to Raven.

XXXXXXXXX

Everyone agreed to stay in the clearing for the rest of the afternoon. The boys went to work on putting up the tents, while the girls went to look for fire wood. Raven cheated by having the Heartless help out.

"Raven, we didn't need three fallen trees." Riku stated with a hand on his waist.

Six large bodies stood behind her, a pair each holding fairly large fallen trees on their shoulders. They seemed happy to help them out, though Riku telling them they didn't need it seemed to upset them.

"We can use them to sit on around the fire." Ventus countered walking up to Riku and Raven. "That way we don't have to sit on the ground."

A thoughtful look passed over Riku's face before he nodded in agreement. With Raven's help they got the Large Bodies to place the logs in the perfect place, before several more were summoned to clean up the branches and bark.

"Sometimes having the Heartless around is useful." Namine noted as her and Kairi came back with some branches to use as fire wood.

"We got a great way to start the fire now." Roxas smiled taking the bark from the logs to use as kindling.

Raven beamed at the fact her friends liked that the Heartless were useful when they weren't taking hearts.

A Red Nocturne appeared when there was trouble starting the fire, and blasted a fire ball into the make shift pit. A few sparks flew out causing everyone to scream and run for cover but they couldn't complain because the fire was started and that meant dinner wasn't far off.

"Thank you." Raven said hugging the small Heartless.

"Vanitas, why don't you do that with your Unversed?" Ven asked looking at the dark hair male.

Vanitas snarled at the blonde, while everyone laughed. Raven did want to really know why he didn't though, the Heartless seemed to like helping her out when she asked for it.

"Why don't you?" Raven asked softly looking at him.

She was sitting beside him and the glow of the fire brought out the red in her hair and eyes, somehow making her lovelier in the night.

"Because they get greedy and fail to listen because they want to do everything in their power to ruin the area they are in." He explained crossing his arms, "the only one that really listens is the one that I keep as a pet."

Raven frowned a little bit thinking about the Flood Vanitas kept in the apartment, it hardly got outside to get sunlight. But she didn't know how the temper of the very Flood, she thought about.

Drags suddenly appeared pulling on her shirt, pointing towards the woods.

"Drags?" She asked looking over her shoulder.

"Haven't seen him in a while." Sora stated as Raven got up.

Before anyone could say anything else, the Shadow Heartless ran off into the woods, lost in the shadows of the night. A panic filled Raven's chest when he took off and she rushed off after him.

"Raven!" Riku and Vanitas called after her.

She didn't stop or respond to her friends calls. She chased after her most important friend. Drags had been there for as long as she could recall, long before Xiro came around. If he was acting weird there was something really going on. He hadn't liked the idea of her going on this trip, but she did any way because she wanted to see the island.

"Drags!" She called stopping to look around for a moment.

There was no sign of him in the area but she could hear him running around.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"

Raven froze at the sound of the scream.

"Who was that?" She asked spinning around trying to locate it.

There was several more screams, each one sounded different from the other, like several people were yelling in pain.

"My friends?" She questioned before Drags appeared again to tug on her jeans. "Drags!"

Before she could scoop him up into her arms, he rushed off on her again. She cursed as she went after him.

He ran past an old iron gate which lead into an over-grown garden.

She stopped for a moment. It felt familiar to her somehow, something she couldn't place. She could barely make out anything in the yard because of how dark it was without a light.

Another scream came from inside the building.

The need to help overwhelmed her body. Without another thought she ran towards the house, only to find no way inside. The door was locked, windows were boarded up so she could look inside. She tried to kick down the door, only to hurt her foot in the process.

"Dammit!" She yelled trying to open the door again.

"CHU!" Drags called from around the corner.

Raven followed his calls around the back until she found a cellar window that was broken. She caught a glimpse of Drags crawling down into the basement.

"Drags, this is so unlike you!" She snapped getting on her knees.

She crawled into the opening, nearly getting stuck on at the butt, though she managed to get through with little trouble after that.

"Drags!" She called looking around but it was too dark to make out anything really.

The screams came from above.

Dread filled her stomach when she realized they were screams of fear and death. They were familiar, echoing in the back of her mind. Stirring up forgotten memories.

"What's going on?" She asked herself softly before finding the stairs to get to the first floor.

Once she stepped onto the main level, everything became quiet. Goosebumps formed on her arms as she walked through the house. Everything felt familiar like she had walked these halls before.

The floorboards creaked under her step, but it wasn't from age – no, they always made these sounds. Memories of walking down these halls really started to fill her mind.

 _"This way! Mom's in the music room!"_

Raven found herself in the music room, the window wasn't as boarded up as the rest so some moonlight fell onto a grand piano in the middle of the room. It was covered in dust but still looked as beautiful as ever.

"Mom used to play this all the time." Raven noted to herself running her hand along the top. She opened the key cover and sat on the bench. "She taught me how to play…. I wonder if I still can."

Instincts took over and she started to play twinkle twinkle little star. The piano was out of tune but it wasn't horrible. Something wet falls onto her hands and the keys.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks, her heart felt like lead. Every inch of her body was fighting to keep moving.

 _"Dove!"_

A ghost of a girl with long black hair and purple eyes ran past the open door. She laughed and danced around before another girl with shorter hair pasted by. Raven couldn't see her eyes. She was walking passed the room. She was pale and seemed to fight to breath.

 _"Raven, Xiro is here to play!"_ Dove sang.

The real Raven stepped out of the music room. She was starting to recall everything that happened in this house. Her mother and father were happily in love and loved her and her sister. They took great care of the two of them but because stressed and worried when Raven's illness set in.

"I had a heart illness." She remembered putting a hand on her heart. "That's why I chose to join the Darkness."

She found a set of stairs going to the upstairs. It didn't take long for Raven to come to her old room.

She gasped at the sight of the ruined room. The walls were covered in dried blood, along with the floor. The bed in pieces along with the dressers and deep cuts everywhere else.

"I did this." She whispered.

The memory of a man with long silver hair telling her that the Darkness was the only way to live; her caving to the Darkness. How everything changed within her, how her family meant nothing as they pleaded for her to call off the Heartless.

Xiro was there and he was the first to lose his heart to her. It hadn't been a Heartless that took his heart either, Raven had reached into his chest and pulled it out without causing actual harm to his body.

 _"Raven!"_ Her mother cried out from the doorway.

Her head started to pound as the memories poured in. From Xiro's heart her metal fans formed. Then she used them to cut down her parents before Dove came to stop her. Somehow managing to overpowering her, but Raven took her sister's heart next and crushed it in her hand. Like it was nothing but a ball of dirt.

More and more tears poured down Raven's cheeks as she felt the horror of what she had done. She killed her own family and best friend. Only because she was scared of death, she had been dying when she let the Darkness in.

"How could I?!" She cried hugging her chest.

The pain in her head grew more and more intense as more memories of her past flooded through. Her parents managed to get a wheelchair for her, so they could take her into the garden for small walks.

Her mother sleeping on her floor when she went through a bad period. Xiro reading books and playing board games with her. Dove making flower crowns for her every day when the weather was nice. Her father giving her baths when her mother was too tired.

She let out a loud scream of pain, but it wasn't only pain that was in the scream. It was filled with every ounce of power she had in her being. The house started to shake so violently that she couldn't stay on her feet.

The windows shattered and the floorboards fell out of place.

Finally her body gave out, unable to hold it all in.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Raven!" Everyone called looking around for Raven.

No one had reacted in time when Raven took off after Drags. Now they couldn't find her, everyone was worried about her.

"Where could she have gone?" Aqua asked looking at Terra.

"I have no idea." He replied unsure of how to really answer his girlfriend.

The sound of something collapsing caught everyone's attention.

"That old house!" Sora yelled further ahead.

Everyone went running towards it and found it in ruins. Dust clearing from how recent it had happened. Vanitas was the first to jump into the rubble, throwing everything aside, trying to find the young woman they were worried about.

"RAVEN!" He shouted at the top of his lungs trying to get some sign of where she was.

Slowly debris started to move about, until slowly two large Defenders appeared from under the fallen house, under them was Raven.

"Is she okay?!" Ventus shouted from the safety of the yard.

Riku quickly came to join Vanitas, only for the Defenders to swing their giant shields at the two of them. Sending them flying into the wall that surrounded the preexisting house.

"Riku!" Sora called coming over to his friend, Keyblade in hand.

Riku sat up and looked at the Heartless that were forming in the garden. "Something is wrong with Raven."

"How can you be sure?" Namine asked looking at all the different Heartless.

Vanitas got on his feet holding his shoulder, "because, the Unversed did this with me once. When my heart became unsure if it wanted to be in the Darkness or not. They're trying to keep her on their side but at the same time want to let her pick her own path."

A Corridor of Darkness appeared on the other side of the yard. Out of it stepped Raven's sister and Xiro, her sister looking guilty, while Xiro wore a smug look.

"You!" Riku shouted pointing at the sister.

She flinched at his voice, knowing he was referring to her. Her purple eyes looked up from the ground to his pale eyes. "I'm sorry."

Sora looked between the woman and his best friend. "What's going on?"

Xiro kicked the woman's legs out from under her and took her long hair into his hand. "This bitch manipulated Raven's favorite Heartless to this very place. So she could remember her blood filled start."

Everyone froze.

"I'm sorry, I tried to get around it." She whispered holding Riku's gaze. "Someone save my sister, if the Darkness leaves her…. She'll die."

Xiro let out a growl and threw her face into the dirt. "You stupid woman! She knows that, Raven will never leave the one source of life she has left!"

Vanitas let out a laugh, "You really don't know Raven then." He stated giving a cold cocky look.

Xiro's eyes went narrow, "I would know her! I was her childhood best friend!" He snapped glaring at the dark haired Guardian. "What do you know about her?!"

"She's got a heart of gold, sure she doesn't think things through when she acts out her emotions but when she realizes her mistakes she apologizes. She cares about how we see her and how others see her. She tries to be the best she can, even though she's on the side of Darkness." Vanitas explained.

"She's like any normal young woman, worried about her first date with a new guy and thanks everyone for the gifts they give her. She worried about not giving enough when she's given so much." Aqua added.

"She hasn't changed." Raven's sister smiled as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Xiro cursed at her and went to put his foot in her side, but a flying Keyblade sent him crashing to the ground.

"Don't touch her!" Sora snapped as he and Roxas guarded the unknown woman.

Namine and Kairi watched in worry before their eyes drifted over to Raven.

"Raven!" They cried out getting everyone's attention.

Their attention turned to Heartless Guardian, who still laid on the ground but a dark aura covered her body. It did not look like a good sign, but even Xiro looked worried when he saw what was going on.

"This isn't supposed to happen." He whispered watching closely as Raven's fingers twitched.

Ever so slowly she got up to her feet. Her face covered by her hair almost like the girl from 'The Ring' movie.

"Raven?" Her sister whispered.

Suddenly her head jerked up towards the sky with that motion the moon and stars vanished from sight, along with anything outside the walls of the garden. More Heartless formed along the walls and outside of them.

"What the hell is going on?!" Terra yelled looking around.

Then an ocean formed outside of the wall, several formations of rocks also appeared but not much else was around. Trying to take in the new sight but it was nearly impossible because they couldn't figure out where they were.

"Where are we?" Kairi asked with fear in her blue eyes.

"The World of Darkness." Raven's sister answered as Sora and Roxas helped her up. "My sister has always been powerful. She got that from our father but her weak health prevented her from learning that for herself. Now, the Darkness is taking advantage of her heritage."


	9. Chapter 9

Vanitas studied Raven, before looking at her sister. "What is Raven's heritage?" He questioned trying to figure it out but he was drawing a blank.

Dove gripped her side, while watching her sister suddenly create a piano out of nothing.

"Our father was a genie." She stated simply.

Raven's outfit turned into a sleeveless kimono styled dress that was black and red with the Heartless symbol on the skirt. Black thigh high socks on her legs and red boots formed on her feet. A single giant fan appeared on her back.

"A genie?" Riku took in that fact but it didn't fit to him.

"You mean like the whole, you rub the lamp and get three wishes kind?" Sora asked like a ditz.

Dove nodded as Raven sat at the piano. Dread ran through her veins as she watched her sister lift the cover and laid her fingers on the keys. How was she supposed to explain the whole genie thing to her sister's friends?

"She doesn't have a lamp because she was born into it rather taken in to it. You see the thing about genies is that most people wish themselves into the life of a genie. She will never have a lamp unless she breaks the rules three times." She explained as the dark and hunting melody started.

The Heartless started to react, attacking the group while Raven played.

"Keep her safe!" Terra ordered before taking down a couple of Heartless.

"How are we gonna deal with Raven?" Kairi asked summoning her keyblade.

Vanitas didn't summon his keyblade, instead he had a hoard of Unversed come to his side. Most of them taking care of Raven's sister. "I'll take care of her, I'm a Guardian like she is. Only now I know more about her."

"Her magic doesn't need the 'I wish' phrase." Dove warned suddenly. "That is also what makes her different compared to our father. He could only grant wishes or make things appear for a purpose. Raven doesn't have to grant wishes, because of her oddity."

Vanitas took note of that, meaning Raven was in complete control of her magic. There was no lamp to rub to make her behave, or order to give to make her stop everything. She had the cosmic powers of a genie but without most of the chains.

He recalled Raven's nature to want everyone happy. He had an idea and hoped that it would work because of the genie in her.

Dove watched the dark haired man head toward her sister. Memories of her parents flashed through her mind, how they explained how different Raven was from her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _"She's so tiny." A young Dove wowed at the sight of her new born sister._

 _Her mother and father sat on their bed with the pink baby laying in between them. The birthing had been done at home because her father had thought it safe that way because he sensed the magic in the baby._

 _"She won't grow into her abilities for a while but they are powerful." Her father smiled stroking the baby's cheek._

 _"What are you going to call her?" Dove asked looking at her mother._

 _A woman with beautiful brown hair that had princess like curls. She could have been a princess if it hadn't been for the fact a genie, Dove's father, had swept her off her feet. Her mother's purple eyes sparkled in the setting sun light as she looked at the new baby._

 _"Raven." She replied before running a hand through Dove's dark curls. "I have a beautiful Dove and a beautiful Raven."_

 _"That's perfect." Dove's father replied kissing his wife's head._

 _XXXXXXXXX_

 _Raven grew quickly but by the age of five, they learned about how weak her heart was. It had been a wonderful fall day, the trees had dropped so many leaves into the yard and between Raven and their father the leaves were brought into large piles._

 _"Now watch carefully, Raven." Their father said firmly giving his hand a wave._

 _Magically Dove was lifted into the air above the pile before being dropped down. Both girls giggled in glee, though Dove had to dig herself out of the pile in order to show how happy she was._

 _"Dad, I want to be dropped next!" Raven cheered lifting her hands in the air._

 _Her magic lifted her only a couple of inches off the ground, but nothing too serious like her father had managed._

 _"Cyrus, be careful with the girls!" Their mother called from within the house._

 _He chuckled some before turning towards his wife. "You worry too much, Alice."_

 _"My turn!" Raven demanded pulling on his fall jacket._

 _Cyrus let out a chuckle before giving into his youngest demands. Slowly lifting her into the air, her lovely red-brown eyes filled with so much life as she saw a new view of the garden. But went he released her to fall into the leave, something felt wrong._

 _Her heart beat fluttered like crazy, causing her whole body to scream in pain. Instead of letting out a scream of joy, it was a scream of fear because she didn't know what was happening._

 _"Raven!" Cyrus called jumping into the pile to find her._

 _XXXXXXXXX_

 _Raven was rushed to the hospital, where they ran several tests before figuring out what wrong. Her heart was weak, and the fall was the first time she experienced the right kind of stress to set it off._

 _"She just has to take it easy. Some physical therapy will help strengthen her heart." The doctor explained._

 _Dove listened to everything from the end of her sister's hospital bed, where Raven was sleeping. The doctor seemed to find it better to tell them when she was sleeping. Dove took note of how much lower their voices got when they realized she was still up._

 _She looked over at her sister, before climbing up by her and moving some of the hair from her face._

 _"I just wish for you to get better." She whispered softly._

XXXXXXXXXXX

Raven's song suddenly came to a stop, which brought Dove out of her thoughts.

Several Heartless tried to charge Vanitas, but several Unversed appeared to prevent them from getting to him. His amber eyes held a serious look, one that said he wasn't going to give up. Dove had never seen anyone give a look like that.

"Xiro." Dove whispered to herself before looking for the white haired man.

She found him trying to fend off her sister's Heartless but he wasn't faring well due to the fact his ability was useless without a mirror of some kind. He wasn't one to really fight and here he was stuck in one because he messed things up.

"I won't give up, Raven!" Vanitas shouted drawing everyone's attention.

Raven frowned at his words, only to send more Heartless at him. "Get rid of him!" She ordered with a hard voice.

"Why is she acting like this?" Namine asked.

Dove took note of how red Raven's eyes had become. Before they had been a dull red but now they were bright more blood red.

"Because it's not Raven in control, it's the Darkness." Dove replied softly.

Vanitas fended off a Heartless that got by his Unversed, though he didn't do too much to it. "We want you to be happy!" He shouted letting his creatures of Darkness move as they wanted, leaving him wide up.

"What is that idiot doing?!" Roxas asked guarding Ven's back.

"Getting at the real Raven." Riku answered watching as the Heartless piled on top of Vanitas. "Raven wants us happy, so if her being happy makes us happy it might bring her out."

That's when it set in. Raven didn't act on mundane desires of the human heart, she responded to the true needs of them. Seeing the people you love happy, doing what you can to make them happy. Why hadn't Dove noticed this? She was her sister!

"Raven, I want my sister back!" Dove shouted suddenly. "I want things to go back to how they were. Our family spending time together, eating dinner together, having small parties out in the yard!"

"I want you to try Sea Salt Ice-cream with me once!" Roxas called.

It caught on, everyone started to call out everything they wanted to do with Raven. Anything from small meaningless memories to the kind that would last a lifetime.

"I want to win your heart back!"

Everything froze at those words. All the Heartless stopped in mid attack, while Raven looked over at Xiro, who was bloody and bruised but still standing.

He held his side while panting. "I want to win your heart back from these people." He panted as his dark eyes started to get unfocused.

"HA!" Vanitas laughed suddenly. "You're already losing that one!"

The World of Darkness faded and the ruined house returned to the woods. Raven stood on top of the rubble watching the two men bicker about who had the rights to her heart.

"Shut up, you two idiots!" She shouted suddenly knocking them over.

Kairi let out a small cheer. "She's really back because of that!"

Dove could see that Raven had changed because of this though, she wasn't sure how though.

"Are you alright?" Namine asked getting Dove's attention.

Looking down at her hand, it looked like broken clay. She hadn't even felt the pain of it happening. Her time was up, Xiro's hold on her wasn't going to keep her here anymore.

Her knees gave out under her weight as her legs started to fracture from the impact. Riku took notice and came to see if there was anything he could do but she told him there wasn't.

"Let me see my sister." She requested looking at the silver haired man.

He nodded and called Raven over.

Raven's eyes widen at the sight of her sister. "DOVE!" She knelt down and took her hands. "This is my fault!"

Dove shook her head, "No, it was never your fault. I made a wish a long time ago for you to get better. The Darkness was the only way for that to happen, this was only my fault."

Tears built in both women's eyes as they realized something had to be done, but nothing could stop death. Until Raven remember, in order for there to be a Nobody there had to be a Heartless. Dove saw the look in her sister's eyes but she couldn't stop Raven.

Raven summoned a Winged Soldier, it didn't look different from any other Winded Soldier but that must be the one that holds Dove's Heart.

"Sora, kill it." Raven commanded suddenly as her hair fell over her eyes.

He didn't question her, only used his keyblade to cut the creature down.

"We can't be sure this will work!" Riku pointed out to Raven, taking her arm.

Dove knew what was going through her sister's mind but she wasn't able to ensure her at all because she finally lost use of her voice. The only part of her part that hasn't fallen apart yet was her head.

"Xiro told me about this working!" Raven argued.

Riku was about to say more but they both caught sight of Dove. She gave the saddest of smiles before mouthing something to Raven, something only she understood. Tears rolled down Raven's face as she watched her sister turn into dust.

A new dark aura formed around Raven for a moment, before she turned toward Xiro and started beating on his chest. He didn't stop her from hitting him, just took every single hit that she gave him. He didn't block any that were aimed at his face.

"This is your fault!" She cried finally falling to her knees. "You're the Guardian of Nobodies! There was no reason why she should have just died like that!"

Xiro looked at her with dark eyes. "There was a reason, she kept breaking out of the place I kept her. Using up the energy and power she had; this last task I gave her, used up what was left." He had his reasons for keeping Dove away from Raven but he would never admit them.

She pulled him down to the ground a slapped him a couple of times. "I HATE YOU!" She screamed before Vanitas and Riku pulled her off of the poor guy.

Xiro sat up, his face already starting to swell. "I know."

"Why do you want something that you keep breaking?!" She questioned trying to break out of the hold she was in.

"Because, I love you." He replied simply before vanishing through a Corridor of Darkness.

XXXXXXXX

Days after everything happened, Raven had re-found her music and found out that Riku's house had a piano in it, she started to play for days. No one got sleep in the house, because she was pouring so much into the keys.

"I regret making my parents get me that piano when I was ten." Riku moaned into his pillow.

Sora listened to the haunting melody that floated through the entire house. "It's nothing I've ever heard."

The guys were over at Riku's while the girl's where sitting with Raven.

"Because it's her own music." Ventus replied with his eyes closed.

Riku groaned more tucking his head under the pillow. "She hasn't stopped playing for three days, how is that possible?!"

They shrugged though he didn't see it.

"So she hasn't eaten, drank, showered, or slept for three days?" Terra asked with a worried look.

Vanitas scoffed, "I wouldn't either after everything that happened to her. She lost the last part of her family, regained the memories of killing her family and came to hate the person she loved most in life that she could've had a family with on top of losing her childhood home." He crossed his arms. "If I could play Piano like she can, I'd play until I passed out, too."

They were all quiet because he was right, but Riku did have some right to complain. He was losing sleep from worry, which meant he was hardly eating as well. He was falling asleep anytime he got away from the house, which dragged down any guy time.

Aqua came in with that new motherly look on her face, along with her arms crossed over her chest. "She needs to either shower, ear or rest." She stated simply.

"If you try to stop her, she'll just hit and curse at you." Riku retorted holding up his bandaged forearm.

Raven had taken his removing her from the piano as an act of war and pulled one of the blades of her fans out and sliced into his arm. He learned his lesson right away, though she did apologize later on when he checked on her again. She never stopped playing though.

"Well, whose gonna stop her?" Aqua asked looking around the room. "Kairi, Namine and I have tried everything we can think of to get her to stop. All we get is 'when I'm done' from her."

Ventus looked at Roxas and Sora, who both shook their heads. Terra looked uneasy about it all because Raven had changed since the whole ordeal, her words had become a new weapon. It had to be someone who wasn't going to care about what weapon she used.

"You all are pussies!" Vanitas barked while leaving the room.

He marched through the house, until he came to the sun porch that Raven and the piano occupied. Namine and Kairi were standing off to the side.

Namine was drawing Raven playing, while Kairi watched over the blonde's shoulder.

Vanitas was shocked to see what Raven was wearing. A black button up shirt that went down to her thighs, her legs were very much bare. Her hair was tied into a knot with a couple of pencils holding it together. She had gone through the hassle of changing her part back to her old one, causing the bangs to fall into her face, while most of them were tucked behind her ear.

"Alright, enough playing you need to shower!" Vanitas snapped walking over and pulling her off the bench.

"HEY!" She shouted starting to fight against him.

Before she could give anymore resistance, he managed to turn her over and throw her over his shoulder. From there she started to hit his lower back.

"You'll have to do more than that if you want down!" He said trying to put his hand behind her knees in order to keep her from falling. Her kicking prevented him from doing so.

"Vanitas, be nice." Kairi called from the sun porch.

He scoffed only to let out a cry of pain when Raven's fingers knotted in his hair and pulled.

"You are an asshole! Riku left me alone, why can't you?!" She snapped trying to kick him but barely got his thigh.

She finally got the bright idea to tangle her legs with his, taking them both down.

"Okay, you need to stop being such a bitch!" He called her out finally, rubbing his head.

She gave him the bird, "Make me!"

He narrowed his eyes at the young woman, his mind and gut knew what he wanted to do but they also knew how the girls and Riku would react if he did those ideas.

"HA! A twenty-three year old man can't stop me!" She laughed before trying to get up.

"You're only a couple years younger than me!" He retorted grabbing her ankle, tripping her.

Once she was on the floor again, he crawled on top her hands were pinned above her head. She tried to kick in between his legs but missed because he leaned forward in time, only to learn the top couple buttons were undone on the shirt.

"Have you no shame, woman!" He turned bright red looking away from the exposed cleavage.

"If I did, I'd be wearing pants!" She retorted lifting her head so that it meet with his.

Both cried out in pain as they held the spot that got rammed into the other's skull. This only paused the fight for a moment. Raven quickly used that time to try and crawl away, back towards the piano.

"Oh no, you don't!" He grabbed her leg again pulling her back.

"Mother fucker!" She tried to kick him in the face, but missed.

A different type of darkness filled his amber eyes, "I can be if you want."

Raven turned bright red at that statement, then quickly fixed the shirt since it started to rid up and moved away from him. "N-no thank you."

He got puzzled at her sudden change. She was basically wearing nothing yet sexual comments flipped on the shyness switch.

"What is going on out there?" Terra asked coming out of Riku's room.

Vanitas got up and quickly threw Raven over his shoulder, purposely putting his hand on the back of her bare thigh. "Just taking her to the bathroom for her shower." He gave a sly grin.

"Aqua!" Terra called as Vanitas darted off into the nearest bathroom.

Raven was still bright red when he set her down and turning his back toward her.

"I'm just waiting for Aqua. She'll make sure you shower, I just took the task of getting you off the piano." He explained finally.

Raven looked at him confused while her face cooled down.

"What you're doing is causing everyone to worry. I know a lot of stuff happened but if you really need to play the piano like that, tell me so I can make it happen in a way that Riku doesn't have to suffer as much."

A knock from the door kept Raven from replying to him, because he opened it and switched places with Aqua.

Her mind became numb as she thought about his words over and over again. Trying to grasp their meaning. She barely recalled taking her shower because she did everything in auto pilot.

What was going on with her?


	10. Chapter 10

Raven's playing became tame after her odd fight with Vanitas. She only played during the day when everyone was gone or when Riku wasn't try to get something done. Her music had gone from being dark and haunting to something confused yet upbeat.

The girls enjoyed it a lot more, though they felt like they were confused by it all themselves.

"Let's try playing something different." Kairi suggested one day pulling out her phone.

Raven stopped playing and looked at the red head confused for a moment. "What do you mean?"

Namine smiled and pulled out her phone as well. "Let's play more modern music for you, maybe find songs with piano to them that fit how you're feeling. Then, we can help you out a lot better."

Kairi gleamed scrolling through her playlists. "Girl talk is the best form of medicine for a girl in doubt."

Raven started to understand what she was talking about and nodded in agreement. She gently put the key cover down and turned her back to the piano but never left the bench, while Kairi and Namine attached to her sides, taking turns playing songs that could fit how Raven felt.

XXXXXXXXX

"Vanitas, is this a good idea? You said you didn't want that house." Riku questioned looking at Vanitas, who sat on the other side of the booth.

They were at the old café that they used to hang out in during high school.

"I hated the guy but he left me an entire estate. It hasn't sold in a couple of years for some reason. Plus, Raven needs a place to play all the time without hurting you or your parents."

Riku looked unsure about it all. It was a paid off house outside of town, but Vanitas had inherited it from his great uncle, who he hated for reasons no one knew. He's been trying to clean his hands of it since he's gotten it but suddenly he's been talking to the relator to get it off the market.

"So you think this is the answer? What about the apartment you share with Ven?"

Vanitas leaned back, while rubbing his head. It was still tender from where Raven yanked on his hair but it was alright as long as he didn't brush it too much. "I'll still go there at night to sleep, so Raven can play endlessly without worry. Or if Roxas wants to he can take my room and I'll keep paying my half of rent since it is my name on the lease."

Before Riku could say anything more about it all, Vanitas' phone went off. The Unversed Guardian got up and left to take the call.

Riku thought about how Raven may feel about this, he could tell that something was up with her since her music was a whole new tune but it was a confusing tune. It only happened because of what Vanitas said to her the day he pulled her off the piano.

While lost his thought, his phone went off.

He looked down to see that it was a text from Kairi. **Come home. Gotta show U sumthing.**

XXXXXXX

"What is so important that I had to come home?" Riku asked once he got to the sun porch.

Namine and Kairi were beaming while they stood in the doorway. "WE found a way to help Raven think more clearly." Kairi stated looking at Namine.

He gave them an odd look.

"It took a couple hours, but we went through a lot of music to find something that fit how Raven was feeling –." Namine explained.

"- so Raven could put it into the keys herself. We found the perfect song and she wants you to hear it before we invite the others over to hear it."

Some things clicked together but others still didn't make sense to him but he nodded as the two let him see Raven sitting at the piano.

Her eyes were still clouded with confusion but it wasn't as bad as before. She was finally wearing normal clothes again, after walking around in just a dress shirt for nearly a week. It was really awkward even though she wasn't affected by anyone seeing her like that.

"It's Metro Shower by Owl city." Kairi stated suddenly.

With that Raven's fingers went to the keys and danced across them at a slower pace than normal.

"I can finally see. That you're right beside me." Raven said softly. "I am not my own for I have been a new. Please don't let me go, I desperately need you."

Riku had heard this song before yet somehow Raven turned it into a different song, one with a lot more meaning behind it.

"I am not my own. For I been a new, please don't let me go. I desperately need you."

It was a song mostly piano lines but the few lines weren't the part that showed that she felt like she found the place where she belongs. He smiled and patted her head some.

"That was perfect, sounded like the real thing." He said as he noticed Drags sitting on the piano in front of Raven.

She shook her head. "No, that was my second time playing it and there are still a couple of minor things missing."

He looked at Namine and Kairi for answers.

"She only listened to the song once before playing it once for us and again for you." Namine explained with a smile.

"We can't tell how she's messing up but she believes she's messing up."

He nodded before asking Raven to go through it again, while he got his headset and played it in one ear, while listening to her playing. It took a couple of times to get it to match with her playing, but it sounded perfect to him but he was untrained ear when it came to this kind of music.

"Alright, I'm not seeing it but I'm sure everyone else will love it."

Raven looked unsure but nodded with a small smile forming.

XXXXXXX

Riku hadn't lied everyone did love it. Though Raven still felt like things were weird in her head and chest. She couldn't tell them because they were starting to believe that she was starting to recover from the loss of her sister.

"I'm hungry." She stated simply after finishing the song.

They all looked surprised but went into the kitchen, while she stayed behind. She needed to try and find another song to play. Something with more lyrics that really got to her, because just playing out her own stuff wasn't working out for her.

"Thought you were hungry." Roxas called from the doorway.

She jumped while looking at him in surprise. "I am, just thinking about…. some stuff that came up in my head." She replied quickly but felt he saw through her.

He came and sat on the bench with her, "You can talk to us, you know." He explained putting a hand on her shoulder. "It might be hard but trying to only put it into musical notes isn't going to help us fully understand how your feeling."

Heat of shame filled her cheeks, "I'm sorry." She admitted.

"No, you're fine." He exclaimed waving his hands like a mad man. "I kinda know what you're going through, it happened to me when I first moved here from my old home town."

"You're not from Destiny Island?" Raven had assumed he had known everyone in the group for a long time but she had been wrong. Then again she was considered dead for some time now because of her joining the Darkness and taking the hearts of her family.

He shook his head, "Nah, I came from the main land because of some stuff in my past. I came to live with Sora's folks because they're good friends from their childhood."

Her jaw dropped in understanding then formed a smile. "Thank you, Roxas."

"That's what friends are for." He replied getting up and holding a hand out to her.

She took his hand and let him help her up. "Well, I guess it would help if I made someone keep their promise of a horror movie fest."

"Sounds like a date for someone then." He teased.

She shrugged, "Hard to tell with him, seems too much like the play boy as of late."

Roxas gave her a look.

"I can't help it if Drags like to follow him around when he's bored." She admitted. "He's just doing his job reporting to me when he leaves and what he sees." She explained crossing her arms. "It's not like I told him to do it."

Roxas just chuckled before leading her down to the kitchen. Aqua was doing most of the work, while Terra gave her whatever she asked of him. Riku and the others sat off to the side, talking about random things, mostly classes starting again.

"Smells good." Raven commented as she entered.

Aqua looked over her shoulder, "It's just a simple pasta."

"Dove loved pasta, I can remember that now. Mom would make it all the time for her when she had a bad day."

She sat down at the island, putting her chin on her hand. Everyone looked at her with a concerned look in their eyes but she smiled at them.

"Well, at least it was something positive." Sora commented out of nowhere.

She started to laugh a little, "Don't worry, I still have a lot of to work with myself but you guys are my friends. If I ask for help I know you guys will try to."

Exchanging looks before they nodded, she knew Roxas had been right. Things were going to get brighter again, time and work were the only things left. Somehow they would get through this bump in the road called life.

Dinner was served, everyone sat at the dining room table. Making jokes and talking about anything they could think of in a light hearted manner, keeping the mood light.

"I heard someone promised a horror movie fest." Roxas threw out there suddenly causing Raven to nearly choke on her food.

Vanitas stiffened for a second before setting his fork down. "Right, I just have been taking care of a couple of personal matters."

Ventus gave an odd look because he would have known about any personal matters that came up. But he didn't say anything, Vanitas would tell them when he was ready.

"How about tonight then, you don't seem too busy. Plus then we could all have a good sleep over out of it."

Namine and Kairi perked at the sound of a sleep over, something that hadn't really happened since high school. Plus, they knew Raven hadn't really had one where her hair and nails were done to look pretty.

"That's up to Riku since it is his house." Vanitas threw in.

The three girls but Raven gave the silver haired man a look that told him he was due for death if he didn't agree to the sleep over.

"Alright, we can do it. Vanitas can go get his movies while the rest of us get the living room ready for it.

Kairi and Namine let out squeals of glee as they wrapped an arm around Raven, then told her about how they would do her hair and nails for her, which lead Raven to question why they would do that for a movie.

"Well, I guess I'll go get the movies." Vanitas stated getting up from his place.

Raven really perked up form that, "Use the Corridor of Darkness, it'll be faster!"

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked back at her, "If you're gonna be bossy why don't you come pick them out then?"

She looked unsure for a moment before nodding. "Okay."

"We're not going to sleep tonight." Sora moaned hitting his head on the table.

Roxas gave a concerned look at Sora, "You mean for a week right. Vanitas has all those Government banned movies from online burned onto DVDs, we're screwed if Raven picks any of those."

"Don't worry, I'll save those for a movie fest between me and her." Vanitas assured as Raven opened a Corridor.

XXXXXXXXXX

Once in the apartment, Vanitas lead her to his room, where he kept his movies. Raven followed with a few feet of space between the two of them. She felt like Vanitas was avoiding this promised movie fest for some reason, but now he was only doing it because everyone outnumbered him.

"So, what have you been doing that made you so busy?" She asked in a shy tone.

He flicked on the light and showed her the movie shelf that she started to look through.

"Taking my great uncle's property off the market, so I can use it." He explained avoiding looking at her.

She hardly noticed that he wasn't looking at her, since she was so focused on the movies but his tone gave off a distance that made her pause for a moment.

"What are you using it for?" She questioned not looking at him, trying to give him space.

He sat at the edge of his bed before leaning back. "To give you a place to play piano for days when you need to." He mumbled. "Riku isn't too sure about it, but it's up to you."

Raven's eyes widened some as she spun to look at him. She just finally settled into living at Riku's why would he suddenly pull her out of there to live in a different place. She shook it off trying to play it cool.

"I can see why he doesn't think about it too much, you wanted to go on a single date with me that kinda got ruined and suddenly you want me to move to a house with you?"

He covered his face with his hands, "That's not what I mean. You can live there on your own if you want or it could be the place you could go to just play for days when Riku's back in class. So you don't mess with his studying."

"Why did you want to go on that date?" She asked suddenly.

He tensed because he didn't think she'd ask that, because he wasn't fully sure of why he wanted to go on any date with her. He only knew that he was drawn to her, if it was because they were Guardians or something else he wasn't sure.

"You're different from other women that I've dealt with in life. You're not afraid of me for one, or drawn to me because of my dark personality that I show to the world. Plus, you have shown to break every rule I knew about being a Guardian."

She looked at him confused for a moment, "I barely broke any rules."

"You were going to have a kid, with another Guardian. We're immortal in the aspect that we aren't going to age any more. We have no reason to have children, no other Guardian has ever had a child unless it was with a human."

She shook her head, "Don't bring that up."

He sat up and looked at her, "It only happened because you and Xiro both wanted a family with each other at the time. The Genie in you must have kicked in at that point." He explained simple as that. "If you did it now with any other Guardian it wouldn't happen."

She turned back to the shelf and grabbed random movie, though making sure they weren't ones that Riku had. "Let's just go back, I'm done talking about this."

"Now you're gonna pull the bitch card now?" He snapped.

She marched out of his room into the main living area of the apartment. "It's be great if you just dropped it so I wouldn't have to pull that card." She retorted back.

"Then tell me your problem." He countered following her out.

She tried to find the words to explain what her problem was but she wasn't sure what it was. "Just… just drop it." She shuttered quickly.

He gave a look, "Are you just creating a problem to fight with me?"

She gave a scoff, "If I wanted to fight I would have."

"Then tell me the issue."

She whipped around on him, "The only one who wanted a family at the time was me! You telling me that I can't have one kinda puts a knife in my gut." She spat. "I just simply want to fix the mistake I made, but the worst part about it all is that if I leave the Darkness in my heart, I'll die and then the world will forget about my family."

Vanitas wasn't sure how to respond to that, only let her take them back to Riku's.

Once there, they learned everyone set up how they were going to sit in the living room as well as sleep. Raven showed displeasure in being seated and sleeping on the blankets bed with Vanitas, Ventus and Namine.

"ROXAS!" Raven snapped as the lights were turned off.

Sora and Kairi took over putting in the DVD and handing out the bowls of popcorn.

Roxas jumped in fear, hearing the amount of rage in the young woman's voice. "Please don't kill me, you're choice in movies will give me a heart attack as is." He pleaded.

Raven sighed and waved him off while flopping down into her stop, though Drags appeared and made himself comfy between Vanitas and Raven, which Vanitas's Flood came to do the same. Which surprised both of them because they weren't fighting but rather cuddling like it was normal.

"You must be sick." They stated in unison to their respective creature.

"Hush up your two, the movie is starting." Namine scolded giving them a finger to her lips.

XXXXXXXXX

 _A small girl with long, dark hair sat on her lap, with the biggest of smile on her face. She was watching as Raven played the piano, though her small hands kept trying to join hers._

 _"Iris, you asked me to play, you can't keep doing that if you want me to play." Raven said softly taking the girl's hands in her own._

 _"Sorry, Mama." She replied looking up at her with big beautiful amber eyes. "I want to play like you do!"_

 _"How are my two ladies doing?"_

 _Raven turned to see who it was that said it but everything went black instead._


	11. Chapter 11

Vanitas was the only left awake, Raven's kicking had kept him up but he wasn't going to wake her. Her feet were moving like she was playing the piano. Her fingers twitched once in a while too.

"Iris…" Raven whispered softly.

He looked confused since they didn't know anyone by that name. In the light of the TV he took in her sleeping features. How young she looked and innocent, he would have never guessed that she was possessed by the Darkness.

"Dammit, she just had to be cute." He muttered to himself running a hand through his hair.

Drags started to stir, then hopping around on his lap. Pulling his clothes to get him to follow the small Heartless. He carefully got up and followed as the Heartless opened a Corridor.

"Where are you taking me?" He questioned somehow barely able to keep up.

XXXXXXXXX

Drags lead the Guardian to Raven's childhood home, and through the ruble.

Vanitas cursed and groaned as he tried to keep up, but it was nearly impossible with how quickly Drags went along without any trouble. He didn't even understand why he was brought here if there was nothing here but the ruins of a house.

Then he recalled that this was the place that Dove had lost her heart. Had she finally come back?

Drags picked up a strange looking bottle. It looked like a whiskey bottle, only gold and encrusted with colorful jewels.

"You came for a stupid bottle of liquor?" Vanitas growled taking the bottle from the creature.

Drags stomped angrily at Vanitas before running through more of the ruins before returning with a picture of Raven's parents.

"Her father was a genie…" He mumbled to himself trying to figure out the Heartless' message.

He sat down and looked over the bottle, it didn't look like anything super special. Then like a semi-truck smashing into him, it dawned on him.

"Her father is a genie!" He shouted rubbing the bottle.

A cloud of purple smoke came out of the top. A man appeared from the cloud of smoke, he hardly looked the part of a genie. He had long curly hair that fell past his shoulders though it was tied back, gold eyes and tan skin. He didn't wear the normal Arabian clothes, no he wore a simple suit with a red neck tie.

"Who are you?" He asked looking shocked to see Vanitas.

Vanitas scoffed some before tucking a hand into his pocket. "Your new master." He gave a smirk as he watched the man's eyes widened in horror. "Okay, calm down. I know your daughter, Raven."

With a small sigh the man looked relieved to hear this. "How is she?"

"I'm not really sure. She plays the piano like a nut because her emotions confuse her so much. Also there's the fact she just came to her magic powers, Dove was lost again but this time in the form of a Nobody." Vanitas tried to list everything in a cliff note fashion.

Sadness filled those gold eyes, "So much sadness in her life. What else has happened?"

"Not too much, so what are the rules?" Vanitas asked getting past that.

This a flick of the wrist a piece of paper appeared in front of Vanitas, "I am Cyrus, your genie for three wishes. The rules of it all are simple; you cannot wish for someone's love, you can't not bring back the dead and you cannot wish for more wishes."

Vanitas nodded taking them in, then looking around at the remains of the fallen house. "I wish for this house to be the way it was before tragedy struck."

Cyrus looked confused but gave a happy smile as he fixed up his family's home. The look of being in a dream flooded the Genie's eyes as he walked through the halls. Vanitas followed behind him watching the older man act almost like a child.

"Why did you wish for this?" Cyrus asked finally looking at Vanitas.

He got a shrug in return. "I feel Raven will like to come back here and find her childhood home back in one piece."

Cyrus's eyes filled with tears, "Thank you so much, you must care deeply for my daughter to make this kind of wish."

"She's more like a thorn in my side because of how confusing she is, but our friends want her happy, so this me trying." He replied trying to act like it was nothing.

Cyrus came to understand what he was saying. "When can I see her?"

Vanitas checked the time on his phone. "Judging by the time, Aqua should be up making breakfast now, so not too long."

Cyrus didn't understand until Vanitas opened a Corridor of Darkness. "Right now, you mean?!"

XXXXXXXXXXX

Sleep was still in everyone's eyes as they stared at the grown man with Vanitas. They weren't sure how to take the news of him being Raven's father. Terra was next to Aqua, both sipping coffee, Riku looked like he needed to go back to bed, while Sora, Roxas and Ventus all shared a spaced out look.

"Wait, who is he?" Namine asked looking up from her lap.

Vanitas sighed and pointed to Cyrus, "This is Raven's father. He did not die because he is an immortal genie, bound by a lamp."

Raven's eyes finally bugged out of her head as she took in the sight of the man. Tears flowed down quickly as she let out a sob. She didn't move to hug him or anything because her body was too heavy to move from the chair she sat in.

"You made her cry." Kairi mumbled lifting her head from the counter.

Cyrus stood frozen at the sight of how much his youngest daughter had grown, but she was every bit as beautiful as ever. Even with tears and snot running down her face.

"Go." Vanitas gave him a small shove towards the crying woman.

Cyrus rushed over and took her into his arms, where she buried herself in his body. Both sobbing trying to apologize to each other for everything that happened. Everyone kinda snapped out of their sleepy daze as they watched it all happen.

They were so much alike while being crying messes, but it didn't stop Cyrus from planting kisses on his daughter's head as she tried to apologize over and over again for what she did that night. All he told her was that it was alright.

"You're alive, that's all that matters to me. I thought I was the only one left – forever trapped in my lamp to never see the world again." Cyrus explained softly brushing hair and tears from her face.

"You don't hate me?" She questioned as more tears flowed down.

He shook his head before planting a kiss on her forehead and taking her under his chin. "You were scared of death, you are young. You made a grave mistake but I have granted many wishes that have led to far worse things." He assured her. "You are my only family left, we have to hang onto each other no matter what fate throws at us."

Raven nodded as she tucked herself into his arms as much as she could. Feeling like a small child again, like when he used to hold her at night when reading bedtime stories. It was a sense of home, and she loved every moment of it, but some things had to end because their day had to keep going.

"Vanitas has two more wishes yet." Cyrus stated suddenly looking at Vanitas.

Everyone's eyes were on the Unversed Guardian.

He looked confused for a moment, "What?"

No words were spoken as they all kept giving dirty looks.

"Fine!" He snapped. "I wish for everyone to get a happy ending." He walked over to Raven and handed her the bottle. "I wish for your father to be released from the bonds of being a genie, so he can stay with you."

Everyone's eyes were as large as plates because of how selfless Vanitas' wishes were. Raven's cheek turning red as his hand covered her, holding to bottle firmly in their hands. "Also, my first wish was that your home was restored to normal."

"What?!" Riku and Aqua's jaws dropped.

Raven's eyes lit up for a moment before realizing how far away she would be from her friends. "But I like living here, so I can see you guys every day." She replied suddenly.

"You're twenty-one, Raven." Cyrus reminded running a hand through her hair. "You don't have to live with me, you're an adult."

Raven looked confused about that, because she hasn't seen him in years yet he didn't want her moving back in with him.

"You're not going to bloom into the lovely woman you're supposed to be by being sheltered by me." He explained with a gentle smile.

She gave a quizzing look, "You're not going to do anything stupid are you?"

It took everyone a moment to catch on, Raven's mother was dead – his wife. The person he loved most in life besides his two daughters and even one of them may be dead as well. His family is in pieces and that would drive anyone over the edge.

"I'm a genie, I'm still immortal even if I'm no longer bound by the lamp." He crossed his arms and huffed at her. "I would never leave this world with you in it, you still need me."

Raven eased up a little before hugging her father. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

"It's natural to worry like that, sweetie." He replied holding her close again.

Kairi let out a loud sound, while cupping her face. "This is so cute!"

Raven jolted out of her dad's arms looking ready to fight something only to realize that Kairi was just being, well, Kairi.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Just tap on the icon like this." A middle age woman explained holding a smartphone in front of Raven and Cyrus.

Both looked really confused about it, then turned to Riku and Vanitas – who got deemed babysitters for this trip. "Why do we need these?" They asked as the same time.

Both young men sighed while face palming. "So you can call any of us or each other." Riku stated trying not to look too annoyed.

"Or the cops or any form of emergency people for that matter." Vanitas listed on his hand. "Take videos and pictures, store music to carry around with you. There's a lot of uses for cell phones."

Both turned back to the woman, who went through it a couple more times by herself before handing them their phones to let them try.

They had money from before the night Raven was taken into the Darkness, there was a lot of paper work and legal stuff they had to go through in order to get a hold of their money again. It took a couple days but once it was settled, Aqua suggested that the two get cell phones.

"Do I really need this book of faces?" Cyrus questioned looking up from his phone.

"No, but you may find a lot of people you know from the past." The woman stated cheerfully.

Red meet Gold as father and daughter gave the woman a lousy look. "They're all dead." They replied together.

Her face broke, "I'm so sorry." She looked nervous trying to think of a way to make everything better. "You can use it to make new friends."

Cyrus just sighed putting his face in his hand. This was more stressful for him than he thought, while Raven was trying her best to help her father. She was trying the whole Facebook thing, but she spent so much time with her friends, that most of their posts were about the things they were doing together.

XXXXXXXX

After getting the phone set up and everything else in place, Riku took Cyrus back to his home in the woods. Raven had plans to go spend time with her father once classes started for her friends again. That way she wouldn't get over whelmed with everything.

"How are you doing?" Vanitas asked from the passenger seat.

She was pulled out of her daze and looked at him. "I'm fine." She stated simply unsure of how to answer since she didn't feel odd.

"It's not too much to have your dad back is it?" Riku asked glancing at her in the rearview mirror.

She shook her head, "No, it's really helping. I don't feel as lonely now." She replied leaning back.

Vanitas suddenly turned around and held out his hand. "Gimme your phone."

She looked at him with fear as she handed the device over to him.

He opened the camera option and flipped it to the front camera and took his own pictures before adjusting in the seat and moving to phone so it showed her over his shoulder. "Smile that pretty smile." He said making a half smile.

Raven gave him a look that said she didn't understand what he was doing until he started taking pictures, then she freaked out and went after him, trying to get her phone back.

"Vanitas!" She snapped trying to reach into the front of the car, where he held her phone hostage.

"I like this one." He showed the second picture, where her mouth was wide open in shock.

She was forced to watch him send it to his phone and set it as his wallpaper. "You're a jerk!" She shouted going to undo her belt.

"Don't you think about taking that off!" Riku's voice thundered in the car making both of them freeze in fear.

The put an end to the fun, as Riku snatched the phone and tossed it back to Raven. She caught it before looking through the photos, turning red at the sight of them. "I can't believe you did that!" She whined at Vanitas.

"Well, you need something on there to make it personal." The male guardian replied looking back at her, holding up his phone. "Now, give me a real pretty smile."

The blush faded on her cheeks some but she managed to give him a nervous, yet sweet smile. The digital shutter sound yet off and a satisfied smile formed on his lips before he turned around. He lowered his phone into lap, preventing her from seeing it.

"Hey, I want to see it!" She whined pulling on his shirt's sleeve to get him to show her.

He looked back at her with a teasing look, "No, this is just for me to see." He stuck his tongue out at her.

"Jerk." She pouted crossing her arms over her chest.

He smirked to himself before his phone went off, one of his groupies wanted to see him tonight. He had no plans to do anything else. Raven was going to be spending the night at Kairi and Namine's for her first official girl's night. Doing each other's hair and makeup, talking about boys.

XXXXXXXXX

Later that night, a Facebook notification woke him out of his light doze. He reached over to the night stand and grabbed his phone, turning on the bright screen.

"Dammit." He cursed softly before seeing the post by Namine.

It was the four girls, all of their hair in towels, while green face cream was on their face, they all wore their PJs. Kairi and Namine looked like they were having a blast, while Raven was flustered from having her picture taken, while looking like that. Aqua was just off to the side, smiling acting like the mom of the group.

"Who's that girl?" The woman beside asked with sleepy eyes.

He locked up a bit, "No one important." He stated simply locking his phone again.

"She must be someone if she's your wallpaper." She retorted before rolling away from him.

He was surprised to know that she had seen his wallpaper. He originally set it as the goofy one he had taken with Raven's phone, but something about the shy one he took on his own appealed to him more. Like he didn't see her enough as it is, but he couldn't say that.

"It doesn't matter, it's like it would work out." He muttered to himself thinking about her dreams of wanting a family. Something he knew he couldn't give her.

Some things aren't meant to be for a reason.


	12. Chapter 12

"Okay, all the girls at our house!" Kairi ordered shortly after Raven came home from dropping her father off.

Raven jumped and looked at Kairi like she had lost her head. "Wh-why?" She asked softly.

Kairi rolled her blue eyes before grabbing Raven's hand. "So you can have a sleep over where you get your nails and hair done! We can talk about boys and other girly things too. Watch romantic movies." She let out a sweet sigh at the idea of romantic movies.

"But I like horror movies." Raven replied still not understanding what Kairi was going for.

Namine stepping in at that moment. "We're okay with horror movies but there are other kinds of movies out there. We can try an older but a good favorite movie called 'Stardust'. The three of us like it and maybe you can as well."

Raven looked over at Aqua, who was leaning on the counter. "It wouldn't be a bad idea, Raven. Maybe exposing yourself to more movies than just horror will help grasp your emotions better."

The Guardian still looked confused about it but nodded in agreement. The only thing that really had her attention was getting her hair done. She recalled how it felt to have someone cutting, brushing, and running their fingers through her hair at the salon. She had enjoyed that feeling and wanted to feel it again.

"YAY!" Kairi cheered hugging Raven to her, squeezing the poor girl to death.

"This will be so much fun." Namine chipped in with a shy smile.

"How does the talking about boys bit work when I'm with Terra and Kairi is dating Sora?" Aqua pointed out to the group.

Kairi looked thrown off for a moment before something popped into her mind right away, "Simple! We get to dig at Raven and Namine about who they like, and then tease them with what we get from having boyfriends!"

"Who I like?" Raven asked getting that confused look on her face again.

Namine laughed a bit. "Don't you have a crush on Vanitas or are you still in love with Xiro?"

His name hit Raven like a ton of bricks. She wasn't sure herself, did Xiro still mean the world to her like before or was he really nothing to her now that her sister was dead? The question whirled through her head as she tried to figure it out.

"Come on, let's get to Kairi's if we wish to have this party there." Aqua stated herding them out the door.

"What about clothes?!" Raven snapped out of it. "And I wanted to play the piano a little bit!"

"Do you really need to play right now?" The question didn't come out right but Kairi knew what it was like to play an instrument, since she played the violin.

Raven looked unsure before shaking her head, "no, I don't have to right now."

"Okay, it's settled!" The redhead cheered closing the door behind them. "You'll just borrow some of my clothes!"

XXXXXXX

Raven was caught up in the 'Stardust' movie. Everything about it confused her, but the action and love between Tristan and Yvaine held her through it all. She ranted at the evil witches, awed and oh-ed at the romance. She screamed the loudest when the end came and they got together and had their happy ending.

"That was a good movie!" Raven shouted sitting on her knees. "Let's watch it again!"

The other three laughed at her gentle, and pulled her down. "How about we do our nails and wear some face cream before we do our hair." Namine suggested softly.

That sounded better than watching the movie for a second time.

Kairi got up and went to the bathroom getting a box of stuff and taking it to the kitchen. "We do it in the kitchen, since we don't need to wash everything."

Aqua was in charge of washing everyone's hair, though Kairi took over when it was Aqua's turn. Then they paired up and put the funny, slimy green cream on each other's faces. With their hair up in towels, and green paste on their faces they marched back into the living room, where Kairi already had the nail care stuff.

Raven nearly jumped out of her skin when Namine went to file her nails. It was something she had never felt before. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm just filing you nails so they're smooth instead of rough." Namine replied being patience with her.

Aqua was painting Kairi's nails on the coffee table, and the years of experience showed because she didn't mess up once. Raven watched in amazement for a moment before Kairi's eyes locked on Raven.

"Namine take a photo!" Kairi ordered with a smile that could say she was the devil.

Raven looked nervous trying to figure out how to stop it but Namine was actually really fast when it came to taking photos and posting them.

"I tagged the boys in it so they could see how much fun they don't get to have." Namine wore a look of victory as she flashed the phone's screen to the other women.

Raven's face heated up some when she saw how goofy she looked in the photo but didn't say anything. Namine's phone did blow up with comments from the boys but she was told to save reading those for later.

"So, are you into Roxas or Ventus?" Kairi shot at Namine, whose pale cheeks turned bright red.

"Well, you see…." Namine tried to explain but couldn't find the words are her words mixed together.

Kairi only grinned like an imp as she poked and dug at the blonde until Namine curled up into ball and wouldn't speak.

"Look at what you did!" Aqua snapped going to aid Namine. "You do this every single time."

Kairi looked proud of her work, until she turned to Raven. "Vanitas or Xiro?"

"I want Xiro dead right now." Venom seeped into Raven's words before she caught herself.

Kairi looked surprised, "wow, that movie did do something for you! Now, tell us what it was!"

Raven looked confused at Kairi's come back but she wasn't sure herself what changed her mind since the movie. Then again, she fought with Vanitas kinda like Tristan and Yvaine fought at the begging of the movie. That didn't mean they would turn out like them, they were too much the same yet so different at the same time.

"Tell us about Vanitas, or what you like about him." Kairi poked at Raven while waving her drying nails.

"He brought my father back to me." She replied simply. "I have something of a family because of him, but I doubt we would or even could ever date. We butt heads too much, plus he as all those girls around him all the time."

"He's just looking for that one special girl is all." Aqua smiled looking at the Guardian. "Have hope, maybe he will notice that special light in you."

"What light? I have no light in me because of the darkness in me." Raven replied trying to make sense of it in her head.

"Figuratively." Kairi laughed taking Raven's towel off her head. "Now, that's enough Aqua and I get to tease you two about what it's like to have boyfriends."

Raven took in everything they said. How they got spoiled with gifts and dates. The cuddling and kisses and so many other things. Her heart swelled and starting racing as her mind started running daydreams.

"We lost her to day dreams." Namine giggled while waving her hand in front of Raven's face.

Raven snapped out of it and looked at them confused. "I'm sorry, did you want something?"

"We finished talking like ten minutes ago, Kairi wanted to play something for us quick." Aqua informed.

Kairi stood before them with a violin in her hand and the bow in the other. Raven's eyes widened as she took in the sight of the instrument. It was well cared for and loved, polished to look like it was still new.

"I'm performing in a few weeks, but my accompanist bailed on me because they didn't like the way I play." Kairi explained. "I was hoping you would help me out, Raven."

Raven crossed her arms over her chest. "Why should I after all the heartache you've given me and Namine all night?"

Tears formed in Kairi's eyes, "I was only joking!"

Letting out a quick laugh Raven waved a hand on her, "I'm pulling your leg. Let me hear the piece and I'll think about it."

Cheers of glee filled the room as Aqua told Kairi that she was right and Namine told her it would be a great performance. Raven adjusted herself for when Kairi started to play.

Raven couldn't pull anything up from memory on what the piece was. It seemed like a deep song though. She took in every note and felt like she was trying to hold onto something she was losing. Something she worked hard to get and now was losing it faster than she got it. It was painful but hopeful.

"What song was that?" Namine asked trying to place it herself.

"Anna Blue's Angel. It's a modern song, I thought it would be more fun to play in the show. The rules didn't say I had to play classical. They took the entry and everything but my pianist threw a fit about it not being a classical piece." Kairi explained with a smile.

Raven thought about it a moment. "Play it again, please."

Kairi nodded and readied herself to play again. This time more feeling was put into it, Raven could feel it deep down in her own heart. The melody made her thing of moments in her life that Xiro was there when she had a rough time, Riku and Vanitas were doing the same thing.

"It's for Sora." Raven noted once the red head finished for the second time.

Her face turned as bright as her hair when it was spoken out loud but Kairi nodded holding the violin to her chest. "He's always been there for me when time were tough, protecting me in ways I never thought possible."

"He'll love it when he hears you playing." Aqua smiled with a bright light in her eyes.

Namine had a tint of blush to her cheeks, while she nodded.

Raven was feeling conflicted because her heart was torn in so many pieces at the moment. She wanted to hate Xiro, but their past made that hard – even though he withheld her sister from her. Having Riku around was just a blessing because he was so grounded and able to help her through moments where she felt like she was drowning in emotions. But it was Vanitas that caused the most confusion in her head and heart so far.

He shows he cares yet seems to keep too much to himself for her to understand him and where he's going. She knew about his little pack of girls, so taking him serious was nearly impossible because he's probably said all kinds of sweet things to those girls.

Drags appeared and started to pull on her clothes some, trying to get her attention.

"Raven!" Aqua called snapping her out of it.

"Huh?!" She looked at the older woman lost for a moment before her attention turned to Drags.

"He's been like that for a couple minutes now." Namine explained watching Raven take the Heartless into her lap.

Raven placed her forehead on Drags', "What's going on?" She closed her eyes and let him share with her what was going on. Everything was jumbled because he didn't share who he had been following.

 _He's with another girl! He found another girl! She doesn't like you! Danger is coming!_

"What does that mean, Drags?" Raven questioned pulling away from the creature. "Who found another girl, and what danger is coming?"

He wiggled out of her grasp from there and vanished, leaving her without answers.

"Drags!" Raven shouted as her heart felt like lead.

"What was that about?" Kairi asked looking confused as the others.

Raven could simply shrug before pulling her knees to her chest.

XXXXXXXXXX

Xiro found himself looking into deep blue eyes. Eyes that shone with mystery and a glint that told him to watch his own back. Her dark hair was short and fell around her face.

"You say has the right to be mad at you, but I see it as some stupid excuse to leave you for someone else." She purred softly from across the table.

Xiro crossed his arms and looked away from those eyes. "Raven hates me because I couldn't keep her sister's Nobody alive, I don't blame her. She hates herself for killing her sister all together."

The girl tsked him while rolling her eyes. "You'll never win her back at this point, I thought that was why you wanted my help." She hissed with a dark glare.

His body tensed at the glare, because she was somehow just as dangerous as Raven was when angered. Only this girl isn't mad, she's just more powerful for some reason, and he had no idea where she got her power from. "I do want her back, I'm just not seeing how your plan will work on winning her back."

"Simple, ruin her trust for those new guys and she'll run right back into your arms. Her heart will be broken because she'll believe that she's misplaced her trust in these new friends but you'll heal it because you were right from the start, and always there."

He kept running it through his head, none of worked out to him. Raven would find out sooner or later and then he'll have hurt again. Misplacing her trust and making believe a lie in order to get her trust back. It didn't sit well with him but there wasn't a whole lot he could do on his own.

"Alright, you win, Xion."


	13. Chapter 13

The night air was crisp from the cool ocean air. The salty scent of the water wasn't too strong by the movie theater, as Raven stood in line with Vanitas. Her heart hammering a thousand miles an hour as she tried to remind herself that it wasn't a big deal.

"It's just a movie." Vanitas commented setting his hand on her shoulder.

This gesture made her realize that she was bouncing on her heels, she also let out a yelp of surprise when his skin touched hers.

Vanitas wasn't sure why Raven was freaking out so much, they were originally supposed to see a horror movie, but after that slumber party with the girls; Raven has been hooked on romance movies.

He had been thrown through a loop when she texted him about seeing a movie in theater that the girls drew her attention to. He agreed since he wanted to see how she would react to a romance movie. It would be a new side of Raven, one he wanted to see.

"I'm sorry, the preview looked so sweet." She answered squeezing her hands together.

Raven wasn't regretting letting Kairi text Vanitas for her. She was so nervous she was about to shed her skin to keep some form of distance between them. Watching horror with a subtle romance plot to it was one thing, but this movie was solo romance.

"Romance movies are sweet and tacky." He replied seeing his breath in the air.

Those words made Raven sink emotionally, he didn't like romance movies. He's not going to enjoy the night at all then. Now she felt bad for coming up with the idea.

"We can still catch a different movie, if you don't want to see this one." Hoping she could fix things before it was too late.

He shrugged simply.

She tried not to pout about it but it happened anyway. She let her bangs cover her eyes, hiding her eyes from his sight. Her hands fell back to her side as she tried to close herself off before tears tried to build up but it was hard to fight that knot forming in her throat.

Vanitas took notice to her quick mood change, the air around her went from tense to a sad type of dark. He should have told her yes, but she seemed to have her heart set on this movie he didn't want to force her into a different movie she didn't want to see.

He had to come up with a way to change her mood again, but he wasn't sure what would do it.

Glancing down at her hand, he didn't give a second thought when he took her hand in his. Feeling that it was cold from the chill in the air.

Raven's head shoot up and her cheeks turned bright red, but she didn't pull her hand away. She glanced to the side, but adjusted her hand so their fingers were laced together. It felt right for it to be there incased in his rough hands, like Xiro's hands had felt around hers.

"You look cold." Vanitas stated suddenly pulling her gaze to him.

Shaking her head was the only way she could answer. Feeling the warmth of his hand caused all function of talk to shut down in her brain. Her brain had been against her since the big slumber party, since she dreamed of that little girl. She wanted to know who the father was.

Though she tried hard, nothing brought that dream back. Instead her mind gave her different kinds of ideas shared between Vanitas and Xiro. Though with Xiro it was hard to tell if it was past or something made up.

"You must be falling for Vanitas if you're day dreaming about that kind of stuff!" Were Kairi's words while she was texting away on Raven's phone.

"You're pretty quiet, something wrong?" He asked trying to get Raven to act normal.

She jerked some as the line moved around them. "No, I'm fine just lost in thought it all."

"Kairi told everyone that you were going to play with her on stage in a couple weeks." He looked up at the starry sky.

Her chest became warm at the thought of playing on stage with her friend. "Yes, it's going to be so much fun." She replied looking at him. "You and the others will be there to see us?"

A smirk formed on his lips, "Kairi would kill us if we missed you play." He looked at his phone in his free hand. "She could care less if it was just her, but you seem to be a different story for the whole group."

Blush crept across her cheeks when he said that. "I'm not that special, yet you all make me out to be."

Vanitas chuckled at her some. "I think you're plenty special; being part genie for starters, being the first female guardian to almost have a child and you play the piano like no one else's business. You're not a very average person, Raven – you just have to learn to accept that."

Her cheeks felt like someone had set them on fire. "I don't know what to say."

A sly look formed in his eyes.

A group of guys walked oddly close to them and Raven let out a yelp when one's hand meet her rear with a hard slap. Something Vanitas didn't miss, he's eyes turned dark as he let go of Raven's hand and grabbed one of the group members and pulled them back.

"Which one of you asses did it?" He growled as Raven looked at him confused.

The group in front of them were a bunch of hoodlums, it was apparent from the fact their pants sagged to their knees.

"Vanitas, it's fine." Raven hissed putting a hand on his arm to hold him back.

His gold eyes burned with fury when he looked into her red ones. "No one should disrespect a woman like that. A woman should only be touched when she allows someone to." He shot making her flinch.

"Easy there man, Rin was just joking around." One guy tried to laugh it off.

Vanitas's eyes only filled with more anger as he pushed the guy into his friends. "Get out of my sight before I do something you'll regret."

"What's with ya man, is she really your lady?" The biggest guy in the group asked getting in the Unversed Guardian's face. "You two looked more like you were holding hands to stay warm."

The two glared while Raven thought of a way to get the fight to stop before it was too late. Someone grabbed her and pulled her into the group.

"HEY!" She shouted elbowing one while kicking another in the upper thigh. "Don't touch me!"

One guy went to grab her wrist to prevent any fighting, only for Raven to grab him. She pulled his arm forward while moving back and ducking, sending him falling over her shoulder. He landed with a loud thud on the pavement, while gasping for breath.

Another went to grab her by the hair, only to get a roundhouse kick to the gut; also leaving him out of breath.

"Hey, we didn't mean any harm!" The remaining two cried backing up.

Vanitas cocked his head to the side, the shadows on his face growing darker though his golden eyes started to glow in a dangerous way. "Get out of here before something worse is done by me." He voice is low and cold.

Raven shivered some at the tone, trying not to let it get to her but it was hard when she could see the crazed look in his eyes. He was like her, the Darkness sometimes took him over the edge when he didn't give into his nature the way he should.

"Vanitas, that's enough." She snapped getting in his face. "They're leaving, so there is no reason to keep egging on the fight."

He cold eyes locked with hers, trying to strike the fear of God into her.

There was no backing down, instead she raised her hand and smacked him across the face. "I said enough!"

The sting of the slap warmed his cheek, while he looked at Raven like she had grown a second head. Her eyes burning with something he had never seen before in her eyes before. It wasn't quiet fear but it wasn't anger either but there was a pain to the red orbs.

He slowly pressed his hand to the stinging cheek before looking away from her. "I needed that." He muttered in a way that she barely heard him.

They stood out of line for a few minutes while Vanitas cooled his temper more. While he tried to calm down he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one. Of course Raven gave him a look of disgust while she plugged her nose. She didn't enjoy the scent but he had been told by a lot of women that they didn't like the scent of the smokes, yet they loved the taste of it.

"I don't do it often." He stated simply still avoiding making eye contact.

Raven didn't say anything as she didn't look at him.

"What? Cat got your tongue?" He snapped turning to her.

She remained silent for a few more moments, "Can we still see the movie?" Her voice was soft like a child who had done something wrong.

He leaned against the brick wall. "Do you still want to?" He threw back at her before taking a drag.

Her head bob a couple of times while she squeezed her hands together.

"I'm not mad that you slapped me - if that's your issue."

Only shaking her head was the answer this time around.

His stomach started to boil in anger as he tried to figure out why she wasn't speaking suddenly. But it wasn't worth yelling at her about it, so he threw his cigarette down and stomped it out before taking her hand and dragging the shy one into the theater.

XXXXXXXXXX

The movie wasn't the greatest movie but it wasn't bad either. Though Raven nearly screamed in the middle when the couple's clothes came off. The darkness of the show room covered her blush as she tried not to think about anything related to that dirty stuff.

"What's wrong with what's on the screen?" Vanitas tease. "You've done it."

Raven slapped the top of his thigh quick and hard that it was more like a snap. Vanitas shouted out in pain, only to get the theater to tell him to be quiet.

"Because I've done it in the past doesn't mean I want to see it on a screen." Raven whispered through her teeth.

His gold eyes bore into her from the light of the large movie screen. Through it was hard to make out most of her expression, and she was having trouble with his as well.

The sound of a slight laugh came from his chest as he turned back to the movie, which was at the morning after. "They always cut out the good stuff."

Raven was trying to figure out why he had laugh at her. She grabbed his arm, getting his attention though his eyes never actually left the screen. "What was so funny?!"

He waved her off to watch the movie, only to leave her more puzzled.

XXXXXXXXXX

The movie came to an end and they were walking back to Vanitas's apartment. There was a large space between them because Raven refused to let him get close, since he refused to tell her what made him laugh during the movie. He just eyed the back of her head while his hand were tucked into his pockets.

"Are you going to tell me?" She tossed at him every few minutes as they got closer to his apartment building.

"How about I tell you in a less public place?" He called back.

Her eyes narrowed as she shot him a look over her shoulder. "What does that mean?"

He didn't reply.

Walking past the alleyway, something white caught Raven's eye. She turned ever so slightly to get a better look, only for her heart to shatter to pieces.

Xiro was down the alley with some dark haired girl. Their hands all over each other as they tried to pull the others clothes off.

Raven stopped walking for a moment. The pain was so much.

She thought he was in love with her but a mere couple of weeks and he moved onto to some other dark haired girl? They were already trying to take each other's clothes off.

"Vanitas…. I'm sorry." She whispered before opening a corridor.

He didn't get to react quickly enough. He had heard his name but by the time he had gone to answer her, she was gone.


End file.
